Quincy's Pride
by Someone Else Took My Name
Summary: For every choice we make, for every road we take, we create a new universe. At the tender age of nine, Ichigo Kurosaki, alongside his mother, was attacked by a hollow. Instead of dying like any normal person, he awakened his Quincy bloodline. Armed with a new power he doesn't quite understand, Ichigo will assume his role as a protector. Except this time, he's got a few new toys.
1. Prologue

**A/N : **

**Alright, let's get the preliminary stuff outta the way. First, I am _dreadful_ with 'fluff' and character interaction. I prefer my fight scenes and blood splatters. Second, I am pairing undecided, although I'm likely going to abandon romance in it's entirety. It's good reading material, I suppose, but for me, it's not good writing material. Third, this story takes place in an Alternate Universe, in that Ichigo does not become a Shinigami, but realizes his Quincy heritage instead. As an AU, I will not re-hash canon events, so this is an entirely new plotline, complete with all the deaths and new relationships that this entails.**

**Oh, and unlike many readers on Fanfiction, I don't hate OC's, unless they're done badly. So you could reasonably expect a few to show up. And, to reconnect with what I said earlier, this fic is NOT a very happy one. I won't call it dark, but there is little joy to be found.**

**And bear with the first two chapters, there's a rewrite in progress, but for now, they prove that this story hasn't quite found it's voice yet.**

**(Jeez, I bet all these warnings have already turned you off, huh?)**

**So, to break it all down, here are the general warnings: AU, Undecided/no Pairing, Excessive Violence, Cursing, Character Death, Possible OC's, Nonexistent Canon**

**Alright then, I suppose that's outta the way. Begin the show!**

* * *

><p>PROLOGUE<p>

Panic and desperation, anger and pain, this was _true _fear. Nine year old Ichigo Kurosaki had been beaten down, yelled at, teased, bullied, and all manner of things, yet the fear he had felt then was false. This, his mother being ripped to shreds by something he couldn't even _see_, was true fear. He was lying on the embankment, not quite sure what was happening. He could see dark shadows flickering in and out of his vision, and at times, his mother would be cut open or smashed like a toy. Vaguely, he noted a giant brownish-mass that was oddly transparent. It's most haunting features were the two red eyes that seemed to glare at the both of them.

Sweat rolled down his head as he let loose a scream, it was a guttural, awful sound. It sounded almost like he was saying it through a mouthful of blood.

_Please be okay, please be okay_

"MOM!" He screamed again as he watched his beloved mother's arm get torn open by something going so fast he couldn't even _see_ it.

"Get back, Ichigo!" She shouted back as she dodged an attack.

It had been like this for a minute now. Just a short while ago, Ichigo had seen a girl, looking like she would jump into a river. He had run after her... And then this happened. He couldn't even see the thing that was attacking her... At least, not clearly, anyhow. At this point, he could make out that it was large... And furry. It was definitely a terrifying thing, he knew that.

"Mom! Let me hel-" He didn't get much further when a flying tentacle threw him across out of the way.

Blood spewed from his mouth as he hit the ground, and he was seeing stars.

"Ichigo!" He heard a voice say, but it sounded vague, it sounded... muffled, almost liquidy.

He got to his feet, but he was sluggish. He vaguely noted a growing pool of blood on his chest, as well as a sharp pain in his stomach. He looked, searching for the thing that had done this, but all he could see was that same blurry outline.

Then his mother came swimming into view, her face bloodied and her expressions showing terror. She rushed to him, checking him for injuries even as the monster behind it prepared another strike.

Another tentacle came flying for them, this one composed of fur. Masaki braced herself, stepping in front of her son so as to shield him. Her eyes were snapped closed, her expression unreadable. She was prepared to die if it meant Ichigo could live.

What she didn't expect, was exactly what happened.

The tentacle swerved _away_ from her, and instead crashed right into the dazed, wounded boy she had tried to protect. The beam of fur ripped into the young boy, creating a hole the size of his head in his chest. No blood signaled a hit, but Grand Fisher knew he had a strike. He could feel the boy's life, his memories, everything he knew and held dear, all of it was rushing through him.

Ichigo slumped to the ground, blood drowning his lungs and throat. He couldn't breathe, he couldn't think, and he was far from coherent. His agony had tripled itself, and it was mounting with every passing second.

_Ichigo... Ichigo, hear my name..._

A voice called to him, sounding unfamiliar, yet at the same time, sounding so very close to him.

_ Ichigo..._

_Call on my power..._

_Hurry..._ The voice, sounding frantic, was practically shouting.

Everything afterward happened very, very quickly.

An _explosion_ of power swirled from the boy, creating a whirlwind on the ground. Ichigo's wound had closed, and Grand Fisher's fur-beam had caught fire and set the whole hollow ablaze, and the spiritual flame went unmitigated by the ceaseless rain. Ichigo's eyes were glowing a haunting blue, and he was looking with raw determination.

Masaki looked to her son, confusion and joy intermingled.

_Are his Shinigami powers awakening?_

But, that wasn't what it looked like to her. Where was his shihakusho, or his zanpakuto? No, he looked like... He looked like a _Quincy._

She looked to her son, and his growing power, and wondered where in the _hell_ it came from. His strength at the moment was incredible, but his potential seemed to be _terrifying_.

Masaki herself felt something snap inside her. Perhaps it was the raw power that Ichigo was projecting, or maybe it was the intense grief she had felt when she thought her son had been killed, but something inside her was starting to reawaken.

Grand Fisher saw this, and began to get very worried. He hadn't faced a real threat in a long time, and this time, it seemed to be coming from a woman and a child. Pitiful, really, but he was starting to get scared. The child in particular seemed particularly frightening. He had massive reserves of power, enough reiryoku to easily surpass his own, but he seemed to have no idea how to use it.

To the experienced hollow, that lack of knowledge was his only saving grace- Grand Fisher was experienced enough to know that squaring off an opponent with even half the power this kid seemed to have, and if said opponent could _use_ that power, was suicide.

"You're dead, Hollow." Grand Fisher's eyes snapped over to the woman, who seemed to have recovered. In fact, she seemed to be wielding a _weapon._

A wide blue bow had materialized in her hand, it pulsed with energy and seemed extremely unstable. It seemed to vibrate in her hands, and the energy it was formed of was torrential and swirling.

"You attack me, and I'll fight back. But if you attack my _family_, I'll kill you!" Masaki screamed and pulled back her bow.

Pain met with every movement, and the unstable reiryoku seemed to burn the skin on her hands. Yet, she had managed to formed an arrow, and prepared to release it.

Grand Fisher made a last-ditch attempt to get away, even opening a garganta in his panic to leave. He was just a few seconds too late.

Masaki's aim was true, and a blast of energy screamed from the swirling bow. The energy crashed into Grand Fisher's side, pushing him back for a distance before punching through the hollow's tough hide and ripping him apart.

The hollow dissipated into spirit particles and faded away, destroyed forever.

Masaki stumbled to the ground, bleeding and broken, but far from dead. Her eyes were alight with a joy that had been dead for such a long time. Her powers were back, her _abilities,_ were back. She could protect her family, just as she had protected her husband when his powers had faded.

She was a _Quincy_ again.

* * *

><p><strong>AN:**

**First chapter is always the worst in quality, at least, when it comes to my writing. Things should pick up, so please stick close. Oh, and remember to review; reader input is a _very_ valuable thing to me.**


	2. Growing Up Fast

**Chapter 1**

**Growing Up Fast**

The both of them had collapsed in the rain, exhausted and weak from the day's events. Masaki was still bleeding, and Ichigo wasn't looking too much better. Aye, they likely would have both died there if a certain hat-wearing, clog-donning shopkeeper hadn't stumbled upon them.

"Oh my. Now this is _quite_ unexpected." Urahara still grinned his sheepish grin and threw the two unconscious humans over his shoulders.

This changed his plans, but not by much. No, he could work with this.

He might even come to like this change.

"M-Mom, where are you?" Ichigo awoke feeling weak, but oddly powerful. It was as if the body he was in was close to dying, but the soul it contained was bursting with strength.

Ichigo's eyes scanned the room, and when he spotted a lump covered in blankets, he rushed over to her.

"Mom, wake up." He gave her a slight shake, but she didn't respond.

"Mom! C'mon, we need to get home!" He shook harder, and spoke louder. He was in an unfamiliar place, he was feeling strange, and his mother wouldn't wake up. He was starting to panic now.

"Mom!" Ichigo almost shouted at the still lump.

He shook harder, not even noticing when a pair of shoji doors slid open and a tall man entered the room.

"There's no use. She's spent." Ichigo gave a small yelp of surprise at hearing another voice. He turned to face the suspicious-looking character in front of him.

"Who are you?" he eyed the stranger as he spoke.

Surprisingly, all the blond-haired man did was smile warmly at the boy.

"Why, I'm Kisuke Urahara, your friendly neighborhood shopkeeper!" Kisuke said with his most winning grin.

"Why are we here, and why is my Mom not waking up?" Ichigo was still suspicious, but markedly less than before.

"It's a long story, and there's not much time to explain..." Urahara trailed off, his voice rapidly falling away.

"Then talk fast." Ichigo said with uncharacteristic badassery.

They talked for over half an hour, going over hollows, Shinigami, even arrancars and the vizards, and finally, the Quincies that Ichigo had joined. They discussed, mostly one-sidedly, about how Ichigo's powers had awakened, and how her mother had become as strong as she did despite only just barely reawakening her abilities.

"I'm... I'm a Quincy?" Ichigo asked with amazement as he looked down at his hands.

"Yes, and your mother is too. It looks like your own powers reawakened hers. Right now, you're both very powerful, but all that power will fade if you don't train for it." Kisuke led him right in.

"Train?"

"Yes, you need to train in order to keep your powers... Otherwise they'll just fade away." Kisuke knew this was an outright lie, but if he didn't get Ichigo started on his training now, he might not be strong enough for the future.

_For Aizen._ He corrected himself.

"Okay. I'll do it." Ichigo looked down, unable to meet the stranger's eyes.

"That's m'boy." A pair of sliding doors opened, and a bleary-eyed Masaki walked through. She looked tired, and more than a little pale from the blood loss, but clearly alive. "At first, I wanted to keep you away from the spirit world... But I think this is best for you, my little Ichigo." Masaki fawned over her son, beaming with pride as she did.

"Mom..." The orange-haired boy seemed more than a little embarrassed to be receiving his mother's attention in front of a stranger.

Kisuke only watched, grinning as he did. Swaying Ichigo over would be even easier than he thought it could be.

* * *

><p><em>7 months later<em>

"Y'know, Ishida, this is gonna be the third time in a row I beat you." Ichigo gloated to his opponent, looking pretty much the same as he did the day he began his training.

"Don't get your hopes up, Kurosaki! I'm a true-blooded Quincy!"

"Have you forgotten, Uryu, my Mom's a Quincy!"

"Shut up, idiot!"

"Dumbass!"

"Pansy!"

"Weakling!"

Soken sat by and watched as his Uryu argued with his sparring partner. Honestly, these two spent more time arguing amongst themselves than they did actually fighting. Still, he was glad for it. Uryu was great company, but he was also rather quiet. Ichigo had come along and changed all of that, and the older Quincy couldn't be happier with it all.

He chuckled to himself when Ichigo called Uryu a 'four-eyed pervert', and laughed openly when Uryu responded with a resounding 'orange-asshole'. Honestly, children were so _foolish_, but Soken would be damned if he didn't admit they were hilarious too. He probably should have stopped them by now, but he put his responsibilities second this time. It was good that Uryu was finally opening up to people.

"C'mon Uryu, let's see if you can fight as well as you talk!"

"Don't underestimate me, you orange-asshole!"

They formed their respective weapons with outstretched hands. Uryu, with his light blue bow, glowing faintly and ever so refined. The power the weapon contained was dwarfed by Ichigo's, but he had control that trumped him in every sense of the word. The bow was long, about as long as the nine year old Uryu was tall, and it's blue edge was piercing in it's intensity.

Ichigo's weapon, on the other hand, was the very antithesis to Uryu's own. It was even longer than Ichigo, forcing the young Quincy to hold the weapon at an odd angle. It's top-most end was also longer than the shorter, leaving the whole thing looking slightly irregular. It was also a chaotic mess of bluish power, and it often fluctuated between colors. When it wasn't glowing an intense white, it was an icy cold blue, or perhaps a deep indigo. At most times however, it stayed somewhere between those three states.

The weapon put out an astonishing amount of heat, enough to singe anyone who came into contact with the weapon's edge- Everyone except for Ichigo, of course. Blue spiritual flames licked along the bow's undefined edge, making the weapon look as if it was made of flame. It's shape, whenever the spirit flames subsided long enough to see, was that of a huge recurve bow, and coupled with the odd asymmetry, made the bow look horribly unwieldy.

The bow's edge was horrifically hot, and terribly sharp. The weapon could cut through almost every metal and wood that the elderly Quincy had presented to him, making the bow almost seem like a blade in Ichigo's hands. This was a fact that the young boy took great joy in. Whenever he engaged in combat, he always forgot about his archery training and rushed straight in as if it was a sword fight- Something in Ichigo's soul seemed to tell him that this was the right way to go about things.

The fight began in silence. Both their abilities had been sealed to an extent, so as to prevent serious injury, but their pride wasn't so defended- Both of the young warriors had their bragging rights on the line, and they wouldn't give them up so easily.

Uryu pulled his bow back. Ichigo charged. The first shot was released just as Ichigo got in striking distance.

Uryu ducked under Ichigo's skillful strike and lashed out with his fist. Hit hard in the gut, Ichigo was knocked back in time for Uryu to pull back another arrow. Ichigo grinned as the arrow was released. Feeling extremely cocky, the orange-haired boy brought his hand up and batted the arrow aside effortlessly- Only receiving a slight burn as payment.

He rushed forward again and slashed at Uryu with his blade-bow. Feeling the heat near his body, Uryu leaped backward just in time to avoid possible disembowelment, then fired another arrow. This time, his aim was true.

Ichigo was hit on the head by something very hot, and very _sharp._ Blood welled from the wound and trailed down the side of his head, partially blinding his right eye. Grunting in pain, Ichigo rushed ahead once more to strike, not quite ready to kill, but more than resolved enough to _hurt._ Uryu twisted his body to allow the blade-bow to pass him by- Only to meet Ichigo's fist crashing into his solar plexus. Pain met with the impact, and he was seeing stars. He staggered back, just as Ichigo prepared his weapon for another attack.

His chest was numb, his arms were weak, and his legs were buckling, but Uryu _just wouldn't give up._ He raised his bow and met Ichigo's attack, blocking the strike with some difficulty. Ichigo only pressed the attack, despite the pain that was starting to overwhelm him. Pressure was mounting on both sides. Ichigo's strength was being depleted, and Uryu's bow was beginning to break. It was only a matter of who would stop first.

Ichigo won out this battle of wills, and Uryu's bow split apart as he began to pull back. Ichigo's blade-bow cut a gash across Uryu's right arm, all the way to his left shoulder. Blood leaked from the wound in a lazy stream, and Ichigo pressed his advantage. Now disarmed, it took everything Uryu could do to dodge the strikes that were raining down on him. He had to reform his _Kojaku_, but he had no room.

Ichigo thrust his weapon forward just as Uryu leaped to the side, narrowly missing his attack. Uryu promptly broke into a run, fleeing from Ichigo to buy space.

"Runnin' now, are we Uryu?" Ichigo taunted.

"No. Just doing _this._" Uryu reformed his bow and launched three arrows in rapid succession. The first strike passed harmlessly a few feet away from Ichigo's left, the second was narrowly dodged by a flagging Ichigo, but the third hit it's mark. The arrow tunneled into his chest a short distance before stopping entirely and leaving a gaping wound in his chest.

Uryu stood his ground, firing more and more arrows at the wounded Ichigo. Each arrow sent was a painful hit home, and it seemed that he couldn't move under the assault. Ichigo grinned and bore the burden, prepared to unleash his trump card the moment Uryu let up the attack. An arrow smashed his back, driving him down, and another crushed his hand. The wounds were painful, sure, but far from fatal.

Uryu didn't let up yet though, in fact, the speed of his strikes seemed to be increasing. Agony was mounting, and although he wasn't bleeding much, Ichigo felt like he might pass out from the pain. Still, he wouldn't scream. His pride demanded for him to remain silent.

Finally, Uryu's strength seemed to deplete somewhat, and he let up the attack.

_Did I win?_ He thought slowly as he surveyed the screen of dust in front of him.

"Oi, Kurosaki, you dead in there?" Uryu shouted into the dust cloud, getting slightly worried at the silence.

"Not even close, _Ishida._" A hauntingly amused voice called out.

Only a deep blue glow signaled that Ichigo had done anything at all.

At that moment, things got very bright for the stunned nine-year-old Uryu, and then very dark.

* * *

><p><em>1 week later<em>

"Ah, goddamn... What the hell happened to me?" Uryu looked around the room. The area he was in was a bright, sterile white, and his cot seemed stiff and uncomfortable. This was definitely not his house.

He looked to his arms, and saw that they were bandaged, and quite skillfully at that. He raised a hand to his face, and winced at the pain the movement brought. Okay, so he was injured, that much was apparent. His arms were also broken, not quite as expected, but manageable. But the _one_ thing he couldn't fathom was that he had lost to the Orange-asshole. How could that even happen? How was it even possible?

He had that fight, he was the rightful victor, and then Ichigo had pulled some trick to knock him out. The little bastard had to have cheated, right? There was no way he could have won with combat ability alone. Uryu was supposed to be the more trained, more disciplined one, so how could he have lost?

The young boy scanned the room, looking for more clues as to what had happened. Then, his eyes happened upon a sleeping boy with bright orange hair. He was sleeping on a simple foam mat, and had a comforter draped unceremoniously over his body. There were a pile of books and canned foods around his sleeping spot.

_Was he waiting for me?_ He thought with no small amount of incredulity.

"Stupid Orange-asshole." He muttered as he tried to help himself out of the bed.

He was held down by IV needles and tubes, stupid things. Still, Uryu was hesitant to pull them out, fearing that he might die or something equally frightening. Uryu had once been told by his father that pulling out the tubes wouldn't kill the patient, but that didn't make him any less afraid to do it.

_How long have I been out?_ He thought as his shaking hand absently touched the plastic lining of one of the IV tubes.

"I... I should probably call a nurse..." Uryu's voice was weak, his throat dry and sandy-feeling.

Better yet, he could go back to sleep and leave all his problems for the next day. Let Orange-asshole sleep it out one more day so he could just rest. He may have just awoken, but he was absolutely exhausted.

"G'night, orange." Uryu didn't bother saying the rest, knowing that Ichigo probably already knew it.

Ichigo was guilty. He was very, very guilty. It had just been an ordinary sparring session. Powers capped, even though they were young, weapons bared, and little blood spilled. But then Uryu seemed to pick up the pace, as if losing was even worse than death. It had forced Ichigo to pull out his own trump card in order to win- A secret he had kept for the past two weeks. Not even his mother knew about it.

He had intended to knock Uryu out, not put him in a coma. Now he had been sleeping for over a week and showed no signs of ever waking up. It was awful... Ryuuken didn't seem to blame him, but _Ichigo_ sure as hell blamed himself. If he had just let himself lose...

Today would be an awful day, he was sure.

When Uryu awoke, sunlight was streaming in through the windows, and the room was as cool as ever. Ichigo's normal sleeping spot was abandoned, but it was clear that he would be back before long. The hospitalized boy tested his voice, and found it to be in working order.

"Nurse!" He called out, hoping for a response.

The door opened a few moments later. But it wasn't the nurse who walked through.

It was just Orange-asshole instead.

"Oh, you're awake." Ichigo sounded absolutely indifferent.

"I am. Where's m'dad?"

"Dunno. I'll go fetch a nurse for ya." With that, the boy scampered off, likely in search of something other than a nurse.

Uryu sat back down and sighed. He hated hospitals, even if his father owned one. Maybe even _because_ he owned one. He hated them for many reasons, many of which he didn't quite understand, but above all, he seemed to hate that it was _this_ hospital that he had chosen over the Quincy heritage. It was infuriating, and a bit confusing too, but Uryu had no choice but to bear with it. He was just a kid, what could he do, anyway?

Alone in the hospital room, Uryu had time to think, and he did just that. He thought about everything from his dad to his grandfather, to Ichigo's parents, to Ichigo himself, and finally, to the attack he had used to put Uryu down like that. He had no idea what it was, but he was determined to find out. No orange-asshole would get the better of him, and he would soon find a way to beat him.

_You know, I've never seen him fire off an arrow before..._

That little thought gave him a multitude of possibilities.

Was his bow so overwhelmingly powerful that a single arrow could do so much damage? Could that be why he only used his bow as a spirit-blade of sorts? It made a degree of sense, his reiryoku was literally impossible to control.

If Uryu had been any different in character, he might have been jealous. As it stood however, he felt something else entirely. He felt determined. Determined to surpass the orange-asshole, determined to find out what that attack was, and most of all, determined to finally win in a fight against him.

His thoughts were interrupted when the door cracked open again. Ichigo walked in, followed by a tall and young-looking nurse. She looked at the young injured boy with doe-like eyes, fawning over his injuries.

"Uryu, how did you get so hurt?" The nurse asked.

"Uh... Hit by a car." Uryu said the first thing that came to mind.

"Well I guess you're lucky to have gotten off so easily. We'll go get your Dad, I'm sure he'll want to see you."

The nurse left the room, leaving Ichigo and Uryu inside.

"Sorry." Ichigo's voice was barely audible.

"My god, if you apologize I'll cut a hole in your chest." Uryu responded, not looking at the infuriating Kurosaki.

"But... I put you in the hospital!" Ichigo's voice rose to a yell.

"And I don't care, it made me want to get stronger! Don't apologize, or I shoot you right now!"

"Try it, four-eyes!"

"I will, you idiot!"

Uryu raised his arm- And then realized that his Quincy Bangle was lying in a locker several rooms away.

"I guess you're not shooting me, huh." Ichigo taunted him as he flaunted his own cross in front of Uryu.

"Tch, whatever. I'll shoot ya later, I guess."

"Yeah, whatever."

It didn't take long for Ryuuken to enter after that.

It didn't take long for the Uryu to start arguing with him either.

* * *

><p><em>2 years later<em>

Ichigo and Uryu had been training by a waterfall when Soken had gone off to fetch something. For awhile now, both of them had the feeling that something was horribly wrong. It was like there was something in the air... Something that neither of them could shake. It was an awful feeling, one filled with something sinister.

Both of them were thinking the same thing, but neither of them were willing to actually start searching. It had been a half hour since Soken had left, and since then, he hadn't returned. More disconcerting was the appearance of five hollow reiatsu signatures. It wasn't a good combination. Yet, not a single sign of fighting had been detected, no rise in reiatsu, no sudden drops either.

"Ishida. Should we go after Gramps?" Ichigo looked genuinely worried, something Uryu hadn't seen in a long time.

"I don't know. Maybe we should just let the Shinigami handle the hollows... That is their job, isn't it?" Uryu, despite his words, looked ready to bolt off after his grandfather the moment he got a chance.

"I'm going to call my mom anyway." Ichigo said as he rummaged through his bag.

Uryu wanted desperately to go running off after Soken, but he couldn't do that in front of Ichigo. Then he might get the same idea... He wasn't going to let the orange-haired fool risk his life for someone who wasn't even _related_ to him.

"Alright then." Uryu's eyes darted the place, scanning for threats.

"Hey, Mom." Ichigo talked into his cell phone, his voice uneven and shaky.

_"Is something wrong Ichigo?"_ The voice responded.

"Well, Gramps ran off a half hour ago and he hasn't come back. Could you go look for him?"

_"Well, I suppose so. I'll get moving in a bit. Love you, Ichigo."_ Masaki hung up the phone. Ichigo did the same.

"Well I guess that's alright then. My mom'll be looking for Gramps."

Uryu looked relieved, but he instantly hardened his features a moment later.

"Yeah, whatev-" Before he could finish his sentence, a roar was heard remarkably close to the two of them.

Ichigo whipped his head around so quickly, it was a small surprise he didn't get whiplash. Uryu jumped from his spot just as an enormous hand crushed the ground he was standing on. Ichigo's bow had materialized a moment later, and Uryu was only a few moments behind in forming his. The hollow showed itself a moment later, looking about as big as the trees they were surrounded by.

It looked somewhat like a minotaur, with huge hoof-like feet and a furry torso. It's massive head glared down on the two Quincies, it's red eyes reflecting hunger. It's brown, furry body was muscular, and sheeted with a thick hide. With a roar, the enormous being charged after the two Quincies.

Despite their age, Uryu was more than capable of dealing with a monster like this, and Ichigo could probably kill off three of them at once. Uryu had let three arrows fly before a moment could pass, and the creature was hit right in the head with each blast. The minotaur-thing roared in pain as it's mask split. Beneath the mask, was the face of an elderly man, bearded and skeletal-looking.

The creature screamed in agony, sounding both human and hollow at that moment.

"Uryu! They're coming from behind too!" Ichigo shouted a warning just as a set of claws slashed at the Uryu's exposed flank.

The eleven year old was gashed deep across his left bicep, and the pain was immense. Uryu stumbled to the ground, clutching at his useless arm. The muscles and tendons had been slashed, there was no use trying to move it.

Ichigo stepped forward, blocking the bird-hollow's next strike, and even retaliating. The hollow's left wing was cut open a moment later, but Ichigo hadn't the time to rejoice. The minotaur-thing rushed at him, attempting to crush the boy with raw strength alone. Ichigo blocked the strike with his blade-bow, barely saving both his and Uryu's life.

The fight was one-sided to say the least, Ichigo, against at least three hollows strong enough to take on a seated Shinigami, and the eleven year old was defending a wounded friend, at that. Things would go badly if this kept up, and the young boy knew it.

He pushed back against the enormous fist, trying desperately to fend the attack off, but it was hopeless. His strength was dwindling and his bow was unable to cut the creature.

"Kurosaki! Get down!" Ichigo, as a sign of his trust and friendship with the older Quincy, immediately ducked down without asking why or turning around.

The Minotaur's fist flew over his head a moment later, and a bluish blur of reishi slammed into the monster's face. Not one to waste a chance, Ichigo immediately leaped upward and slashed the monster with his blade-bow. Soon enough, the creature's skull was split in half. Blood rained from the open wound, painting Ichigo a dark, sinister red.

Uryu turned and fired again, this time hitting the bird-like hollow right in it's swollen gut. Blood spewed from the wound, and the hollow screamed it's agony as it swooped downward to attack the young boy. Defenseless, Uryu raised his bow in a last-ditch attempt to block the attack.

He was immediately surprised when a bolt of bluish-white energy ripped a hole in the hollow's skull, causing it to dissipate immediately. Ichigo turned around and immediately dispatched the remaining spider-like hollow with two spiritual bolts possessing enough power to derail a train.

"Uryu... How the hell can you move that arm..." Ichigo panted as he wiped blood from his face.

"_Rans__ō__tengai_. Grandpa taught us, remember?"

"Goddammit, no he didn't, he just told us what it did... How the hell can you use it at this age?"

Uryu had to suppress a smirk as he looked at his winded ally.

"Maybe I'm just smarter than you." He responded rather bluntly.

"Heh, maybe you are. Now c'mon, we gotta go find-" Ichigo was interrupted by a purple blast of energy.

"A _cero!_" Uryu screamed as he jumped away.

Ichigo was like a rock, he didn't panic, and he sure as hell didn't run. He absorbed as much reishi as he could, and braced for impact. He raised his blade-bow, and swatted the intense _cero_ aside- Sending it flying into the forest, where it rampaged for thirty whole seconds before dissipating away. The dust cleared a moment later, revealing a large-looking hollow, that looked like a bear of sorts... Except it was nearly fifteen feet tall. It's mask was bony, and very animal-like, but it was all he could see before the hollow rushed forward.

Ichigo's chest was slashed open before he could even see, and he was sent flying backwards. His Quincy Bangle flew into the air, and the hollow consequently devoured it whole. Ichigo was left almost completely defenseless. _Almost._

Uryu could only watch in horror as the bear-like being charged at the now unarmed Ichigo, and cursed his own weakness. His _Ransōtengai_ was fading now, and his arm would be as useless as ever without it. He had a few precious minutes before Ichigo himself would die, and he sure as hell wouldn't spend those minutes in hiding.

"Kurosaki. I'm about to do something _really_ stupid." With that, Uryu rushed into the hollow's path, bow-string drawn and arrow prepared.

The hollow's vicious jaws clamped down on both ends of the spirit bow, and Uryu knew that if his bow's strength failed, he'd lose both his arms. Uryu released the bow-string and sent an enormous arrow into the black jaws of the hollow. The spirit-arrow ripped straight through the hideous creature, and left half it's skull destroyed.

The wrong half.

The hollow's brain had miraculously (or horrifically) been unharmed by the attack, and it quickly regenerated it's head.

With a blood-curdling roar, the hollow doubled it's strength and bit right through Uryu's weakened spirit bow. Jaws met with flesh, and flesh gave way to bone. With a scream, the young Quincy voiced his agony. A white storm of pain pulsated through his head, threatening to drive him mad with every moment gone by. Uryu's arm was almost bit straight off, and would have been lost forever if Ichigo hadn't chosen that moment to attack.

With his limbs infused with reiryoku, and his body's latent speed enhanced with _hirenkyaku,_ he charged at the bear-hollow. He slammed his foot into the monster's mask, shattering it in an instant. His feet and legs groaned in pain, but he couldn't let them give up yet- He had a fight to finish. He slammed a fist into the monster's face, feeling nothing but child-like horror as his hand punched right through.

He followed up with a knee, crushing right through the creature's lower jaw. His pain was mounting now, and his limbs weren't used to this influx of power. If he didn't end it soon, they might well shatter under the stress of it all.

The hollow roared in pain as the young boy ripped it apart with _his bare fists._ It tried swiping at the infuriating child, only to claw a hole in it's own cheek. It tried to ram it into the ground, only for the boy to climb up onto the top of it's head. Finally, it tried to shoot a _cero_ through the roof of it's own mouth to kill the boy- Only for the boy to jump away and let it kill itself.

Finally, as the hollow faded to nothing, all it could think of was _vengeance._ It's animal mind could comprehend that, and only that as it turned to reishi.

"I... Am never... Doing that again." Ichigo collapsed a moment later, completely spent and his legs feeling as if they might break at any moment.

"You reckless..." Uryu paused as he caught his breath. "You reckless bastard." But Uryu couldn't really fault him for it, could he. He himself had put himself right into the lion's jaws- Literally, too- Just to save his friend.

"When did you learn _hirenkyaku_?" Uryu asked absently as unconscious oblivion attempted to overtake him.

"Never... Just tried it out now..." Ichigo breathed, finding his breath hot and heavy, and far more painful than usual.

"Dumb... Ass..." Uryu pulled in a halting breath before drifting into sleep.

Uryu collapsed against a tree, Ichigo on the blood-stained ground, both of them wounded far more than kids of their age should _ever_ be, both of them not knowing the tragedy that had befallen them. Their young faces looked so at peace, so exhausted and innocent, that Masaki couldn't bear to tell them the news.

Soken, was dead.

* * *

><p><em>2 weeks later<em>

"Dammit, Gramps. Why'd you have to go and die on us?" Ichigo very nearly cried, but he didn't. Crying was for the weak, and Ichigo had proven that he couldn't be weak. Not when there was someone else who was _much_ more badly affected by the loss.

Uryu could do nothing but cry at the moment. His face was puffy, his eyes red and glazed, and his hands almost bloody from the fingernails digging into them. He was a wreck, and it was to be expected. He had lost a family member, a mentor, and a dear friend. He had wished it could be different, but it wasn't. If they had been stronger... If they had been faster, they might have been able to reach Grandpa Soken in time.

"I'm sorry, Uryu... I should've gotten there faster..." Ichigo was apologizing again, and it irritated Uryu to no extent.

"If you apologize... I'll cut a hole in your chest." Uryu repeated a threat he had made two years ago, but this time with no malice whatsoever.

They were on the Ishida's lavish estate, in a section squared away as a cemetery for the Ishida family. Soken would be the third grave to be put in the dirt. They had prepared a service, despite the lack of a body to present- Shinigami had arrived to take that away awhile ago, fronting as an attempt to "heal" the already dead man. All this was told to the two young boys a week after the events had transpired.

"C'mon, let's go see about this funeral. We'll honor Gramps one last time." Ichigo joined the rest of the crowd, gently leading the distraught Uryu behind him.

"...And so we commit Soken Ishida back to the ground he came from..." The priest drawled, his tones of concern sounding suspiciously false. Uryu's attention focused in and out, his own grief was getting the better of him.

"...Soken was a good and just man, and although his life was a quiet one, it was a life filled with happiness, altruism, and precious moments. It was a life worthy of the man we bury..."

_Don't worry, Gramps. We'll make sure to fulfill your wishes._ Ichigo thought as he looked at the empty casket being lowered into the ground.

"I will avenge your death, Sensei." Uryu spoke quietly as he watched the workers throw dirt onto the casket.

Two voices, one filled with reverence, the other with hate. Both of them thinking the same thing.

_I'm sorry._ The two Quincies thought in unison.

* * *

><p><em>Shortly afterward<em>

Ichigo and Uryu sat outside a room, both of them waiting quietly while the priest read out Soken's will. First had been Ryuuken, who had been given the deed to a mountain site that Soken had often went to for quiet. Second had been Masaki, who, although didn't live in Soken's life long, had already proven to be a great friend. To her, he had left a collection of 'antiques' he had collected over his lifetime. In reality, he had left the housewife with an arsenal's worth of Quincy weapons.

Ichigo didn't know why he was here, he shouldn't have been. He wasn't an Ishida, and though he had a close relationship with Grandpa Soken, he hadn't been his student for all that long. Although his mother had been granted something, he didn't see why he would- Wasn't he responsible for Soken's death in the first place?

Uryu was thinking something similar. He wasn't deserving of anything of Sensei's, and if he had been stronger, he wouldn't have to die... He wasn't good enough, he just wasn't.

"Uryu Ishida, please come in." The priest gave a warm, but obviously fake smile as the young boy strolled inside.

The priest shut the door behind him and sat Uryu in front of a relatively spartan desk.

"Uryu, your grandfather held you in high esteem. He loved you very much, and he set aside a final gift for you. Honor it like you would your own life, because it is his final letter to you." With that said, the priest handed a small envelope to the Quincy, unaware of it's contents.

"Th-Thank you, Father." Uryu took the letter as if it were the holy grail, and quickly scampered off.

The priest merely smiled as he followed him out the door.

"Ichigo Kurosaki, please come in."

Ichigo did as told, and followed the priest inside the room. He sat in a comfortable chair, but his body was rigid and at attention. His eyes followed the priest around the room, watching with a hawk's baleful eye as the priest sat down.

"Ichigo, it seems that your mentor held you in high esteem. He has left you two things: A final farewell, as well as his prized bracelet. He wishes you to remember both things, and hopes that they guide you through life as they did him." The priest handed Ichigo the Quincy Bangle, unaware of it's true purpose, as well as the letter.

Still rigid, Ichigo took both items and headed out, mouthing a word of thanks as he went. He exited the room, and with a nod to Uryu, they both left the building. In fact, as soon as they were off the estate, they vanished toward their training spot with simultaneous bursts of _hirenkyaku._ They arrived at the waterfall a short while later, both of them in silence as they opened their respective gifts. Uryu opened his letter first.

With grief-filled eyes, he scanned it's contents. Then he read it. He read it twice, and then a third time. It's contents were... Unbelievable, extraordinary even. It truly was a perfect final gift.

_Uryu, if you are reading this, I am dead. Please remember that you were my dearest relative, and and excellent student at that. I have not much to say, so I'll make this as short as possible: Under the stump near our training grounds, is my final gift: The Sanrei Glove. It is my last, most prized possession, and I beg you not to use it unless truly necessary._

_ If you remember the training that is required to don the glove, then you know that I am not leaving this to you as a gift. I leave this to you, as your last resort. Should there be a time in your life when you need the glove, I want you to have it._

_ With Sincerity, Soken Ishida._

Uryu's eyes widened with excitement, his grief temporarily forgotten. His grandfather had left him his greatest artifact, a device so dated and so powerful that only one was thought to still be intact- The very one that Sensei had left him. Hands trembling with excitement, Uryu quickly went to work excavating the stump, without a shovel and only the barest of concerns about his un-shielded hands.

Ichigo had gotten a letter as well, and it was also rather short. Yet, to him, it was just as gratifying, and just as exciting. He had read it's contents twice now, and was willing to do it a third... It was just so, so unbelievable.

_Ichigo, you were a prized student, and a great friend. Though I am departed from this world, know that our paths will cross once more, perhaps sooner than you think. I have left to you, my Bangle. To anyone else, it might be a wasted gift, but for you, it is different. Although it could take years of training, I believe that you have the potential to utilize two spirit weapons at once._

_ Your reiryoku reserves are massive, and your potential even greater. I have left you my Bangle because I believe you have the ability to use it, just think, the first Quincy to use dual weapons since the very first Quincy himself! Be slow in your training, Ichigo, as it is a very hazardous process, and be very careful. Though I am gone, I am entrusting Uryu's safety to you... I know you will not betray that trust._

_ Sincerely, Soken Ishida._

Ichigo's hands had already clutched the Bangle, and he was toying with it absentmindedly now. He didn't know what to think of this news, so for now, he shunted it to the back of his mind. He could worry about it later, but for now, he had other things to do. Grieving came to mind.

But then again, so did training.

* * *

><p><strong>AN:**

**So I know I shunted a lot of stuff out of the way, and I made their growing up really fast. I might've also made those two a touch more badass than they should be. I have explanations: I made them grow up quick because I hate children. With children, it's politically incorrect to have them bleeding out and their insides outside, but it's okay with adults, or at least adult-like teenagers. I also made them extra badass because hey, who doesn't like badass Quincies?**

**Oh, and if you're worried about my updating schedule, you have every right to be. I have no regimen, no one waiting on me, and more than enough fickleness to eventually get bored of a story I start. I'm cruel, I know, but if this story goes off the air for more than a year, it's probably dead. Oh, and ON HIATUS usually means it's dead too.**


	3. Deadly Fighting, Awkward Dinner

**A/N**

**Make sure to read slowly, my scene changes are a tad sudden. Filler sentences are often put in as buffers, but hey, humans are forgetful and humans aren't perfect. I'm no exception.**

**P.S. A filler sentence, to me, is anything that pretty much restates what a previous sentence said, but with fancier wording. Pretty much there to make sure scene changes aren't too sudden. E.G.**

**"Pain tore him apart. [The white storm of agony was strong enough to wrest his sanity away, if only temporarily] He reached for his bow, his reactions dulled by the pain."  
><strong>

**The words in brackets are filler sentences... You dig it?**

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 2<strong>

**Endless Fighting, Awkward Dinner**

* * *

><p>"High school, huh? I don't see why it really makes a difference. It's just middle school, 'cept it's got a harder curriculum." The now fifteen year old Ichigo Kurosaki intoned.<p>

"That's just like you, Kurosaki. You never see the significance of _anything_." Uryu shot back.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever _Ishida_. Now have you decided what school you were goin' too?" Ichigo asked, not actually caring in the least.

"I don't know. The Oba Institution looks pretty nice." The bespectacled teenager noted absently.

"Nah, too many stuffed shirts. How about Naruki High School?" Ichigo offered.

"That's six miles away. Too long a drive for my tastes."

"But in a car, that's only ten minutes!"

Uryu didn't care, and only dismissed Ichigo with a lazy hand. "Fine then, what about Karakura Highschool? It's right nearby, and I doubt it'll be too 'stuffy' for you, Kurosaki."

For the first time today, Ichigo offered a small, lopsided smile.

"That'll do, Uryu."

"Hmph. About time too, there's only a week til' school starts, and we haven't even registered."

Ichigo scoffed at his best friend. "Are you worried they won't accept us? You're the third best student in the _country_, and I'm not far behind. I'm pretty sure they'd kiss our feet to let us in."

"You dumbass, that's not what I'm worried about. I know they'd let us in, I'm just annoyed that you've put off registration for so damned long."

"Tch, whatever. C'mon, let's get registered, then." Ichigo gestured to the open door, and walked away from the Ishida estate, Uryu in tow.

Uryu met with his personal driver, and told him where the two were headed. With a simple nod, the driver opened the car doors and allowed the two inside the back of the luxurious black car. Uryu sat politely at the far end of the car, Ichigo sat on the other.

"Damn, Uryu, I know I've said it a million times, but you're family is freaking rich." Ichigo paused for a moment. "But you should really work that stick outta your ass."

"Shut up, Kurosaki." Uryu spoke quietly and politely, but his tone suggested malice and hatred, and lots of torture if he didn't _shut the hell up._

"Like I said, work that stick out of your ass."

To anyone else, (including the driver) it would seem that Ichigo and Uryu were enemies, that they hated each other in every sense of the word. To the two of them, however, as odd as it may be, that was simply how their friendship manifested. When they had first met, Uryu was silent and withdrawn, never reacting and doing little more than watch Ichigo with vicious scrutiny. Now, he was almost as proactive and talkative as Ichigo, but only when he was _around_ the boy.

They were friends, best friends even, but their similar personalities often put them at odds with one another.

The car ride wasn't long, and relatively peaceful. Uryu thought about his next few years. Ichigo just looked out the window, his thoughts absent. The school came into view a few moments later, looking pretty average in terms of schools. The gate was made of sturdy iron, the walls gray and featureless, and the school itself made of white concrete. Really, it was unremarkable in every sense of the word.

Ichigo loved it at first sight.

Minutes later, the two teenagers were being toured up and down the school, from the classrooms all the way to the cafeteria, to the gym, and even the roof. Normally the administrators couldn't be bothered, but accepting the third and eighth best students in Japan into the school would definitely boost their overall rating and test scores- And it was common knowledge that higher test scores gave way to a higher annual budget. Really, it would be extremely beneficial to the school if they snapped up the two prodigies.

Ichigo was satisfied with the school for it's perfect moderation. It wasn't too luxurious or rich- God knew Ishida's family had given him plenty of that. Uryu was satisfied for it's perfect inconspicuousness, it was the perfect hiding spot for two Quincies. Hidden in plain sight and all that.

"Thanks for the tour, Oji-san. We'd like to register for this school." Uryu asked as he thumbed through a brochure.

The schoolteacher gave pause, and a slight smile bloomed on her face a moment later. "Excellent! We'll just fill out the paperwork and then work out some classes. The curriculum starts in a few days, but we can fit you in." The instructor went over her papers frantically, looking for her registration forms.

Ichigo beamed, the smile lighting up his face. "See, this place ain't so bad, is it?"

"Says you, Kurosaki. But it'll definitely be interesting." Uryu replied.

"That's for damn sure."

* * *

><p><em>3 days later<em>

"Y'know, Kurosaki, school's starting in a few days. You haven't gone shopping yet, have you?" Uryu and Ichigo were at the Kurosaki household, currently behind doors that were locked _and_ barricaded to prevent a certain perverted father from spying on them.

"This is the third time you've said that, Uryu. It's really getting on my nerves."

"You don't even have a freaking book bag! Of course I'm going to pester you about it!"

"Yeah, well you don't have to be so stupi-" An alarm rang from Ichigo's pocket. "-stupid about it. Now c'mon, we've got hollows to kill."

"Already on it, Kurosaki. How many on the radar?"

Ichigo pulled his alarm out of his pocket.

"Looks like a lot today, four major hollows, as well as about thirty-two minor ones." Despite it, neither of the two looked worried. They had faced worse odds before.

"Scattered?"

"Nope. They're all gathering around the Karakura Industrial Park. C'mon, I bet I'll kill more than you."

"In your dreams, Kurosaki."

The two dashed off shortly afterward, moving with simultaneous bursts of _hirenkyaku_. Although the industrial park was usually a three hour drive, they got there in minutes, moving miles with each jump they made.

"Those reiatsu signatures are comin' from the seventeenth and third warehouses!" Uryu shouted as they flew.

"Got it, I'm movin' out!" The two split apart, Ichigo taking the third, and Uryu the seventeenth. Ichigo got there first.

Almost immediately after he appeared, a swarm of boney needles flew at him, flying at the speed of a bullet. The first shot crashed into Ichigo's shoulder, but the impact was lessened by a reiatsu shroud. The second grazed along Ichigo's cheek, and the third cut deep into his left calf.

Ichigo's eyes, filled with pain, darted to the hollow responsible. It was a humanoid thing, but easily as tall as a whale. It's legs were thin and spider-like, it's arms large and seemingly plated. It's broad chest glistened with white bone, and it's mask could, at the very best, be described as the pinched face of a very fat person.

All in all, the thing looked ridiculous. It's abilities, however, were the exact opposite.

The plates on it's arms sprung open. There were holes in his arms, looking distinctly like the grates missiles were fired through. True enough, dozens and dozens of bone needles shot from the holes, and each one honed in on the orange-haired Quincy like miniature missiles. It was all he could do to avoid each strike, being forced to pump reiatsu to his feet in order to move fast enough to dodge.

Ichigo attempted to manifest his bow, but the calculated strike of a lesser hollow threw him off. Blood leaked from a thin wound raked across his chest, the wound appearing just a moment before he jumped back. Less than a quarter-second later, a bone-needle came flying in from the edge of his vision, looking to impale him through the skull.

"Damn, I should have switched warehouses with Uryu." He groaned as he caught the needle bare-handed.

The other lesser hollow charged him, and although Ichigo's weapon was equivalent in strength to a prison-room shiv, he used it well. The hollow lashed out with bladed arms, and Ichigo met the attack with a fierce parry. He repelled the attack and pushed back, staggering the lesser hollow, despite the fact that it was bigger than Ichigo by over four hundred pounds.

"Let's go!" Ichigo flicked off his Bangle, and caught it with his left hand.

Slipping the silvery medallion onto his wrist, he transferred as much reiryoku into it as he could. The asymmetrical, unstable bow took shape and solidified. Thrumming with power, the whitish-blue bow was up and flying before the lesser hollow realized it. Ichigo pulled back his right hand and threw his bone-needle into a nearby monster's eye socket. White optical fluid, intermixed with blood, spewed from the hollow's wound and onto the ground.

Ichigo split the first hollow in half with his blade-bow and quickly charged after the second. Before he could reach the serpentine demon, however, a swarm of bone needles enveloped him. Ichigo forced reiryoku into his bow, and it's shape expanded into a broad shield-like thing that hardly looked like a bow anymore.

The spirit-weapon enveloped the needles that were sent crashing into it, making the weapon a lot heavier than it should have been. A lesser hollow attacked him, two hammer-like limbs flailing clumsily. Ichigo moved his bow to block the assault, and quickly shot back all the collected needles at the hollow.

The effect couldn't have been more gruesome.

Like a shotgun blast, the outpouring of bone needles was intense, and quickly shredded the hollow to tiny fragments. Blood painted the ground, as well as Ichigo's face and chest. Viscera splattered everywhere, often cut badly enough so as to be indistinguishable from torn flesh.

"So messy." Ichigo intoned as he charged at the greater hollow ahead of him.

The hollow opened the plates on it's arms and fired more needles, pelting the seemingly insane fifteen year old boy with projectiles. Ichigo enveloped his body with reiatsu to avoid being killed, making each shot lose enough velocity to bounce off his body harmlessly instead of ripping through flesh and bone.

His blade-bow cut straight through the armor plates protecting the hollow's arms, and dismembered the creature entirely. Ichigo launched himself off the hollow's broad chest and raised his right arm to his bowstring. The greater hollow opened the plates on it's remaining left arm, and launched a needle swarm at the infuriating boy.

Ichigo was hit hard, just a half-moment before he could bring up his reiatsu shield. The bone-needle ripped his shoulder open and left his right arm hanging useless by his side.

_Huh, guess I'm not shooting anything._ Ichigo felt surprisingly calm, despite his life being in danger.

He briefly considered trying _Ransōtengai_, but decided that if he tried it, he would end up burning his body from the inside out. He could infuse his limbs with reishi or reiryoku to punch harder... But not for something as delicate as nerve working.

With his left arm raised, he charged the greater hollow and prepared to slash. The creature kicked at him with it's spider-legs, but missed entirely. Ichigo capitalized on it's temporary loss of balance and struck at it's remaining arm. The cut tore in about halfway through the bone, but his left arm was ripped open by a large, bear-sized centipede creature before he could finish the job. Ichigo was sent flying back when a shotgun blast of needle punched him in the gut.

He slammed into the ground and got to his feet. Bow still materialized. Pain was mounting, but it was a sensation as familiar to Ichigo as water to a fish. The boy fought against the rising agony as he moved his right arm up. Briefly, he recalled a conversation he had with Uryu awhile back.

_Uryu, why don't Quincies use two Bangles at once. It's possible, isn't it?_

_ Sure, it's easy, but Quincies are archers. Archery takes two hands. We're not all like you, who can use his bow as a one-handed greatsword and cut everything in sight._

_ But it is possible, right?_

_ What did I just say, you neanderthal?_

Ichigo took his right arm to his chest, despite his body's furtive resistance at every step. He reached inside the pocket of his shirt and pulled out a simple iron pentacle, each point connected by the edge of a circle. Ichigo took his left hand and slipped the Quincy Bangle onto his left wrist. Forcing as much reishi into it as possible, he slowly began to feel power swell within him. He wasn't trying to make a weapon. He was trying to force enough spiritual power into his arm in order to accelerate the healing process and repair his frayed nerves.

The centipede-hollow rushed forward, eyes and snapping jaws practically _dripping_ with killing intent. Ichigo side-stepped the first strike, and jumped over a strike from one of it's 'legs'. Now airborne, he created an unstable, crumbling platform beneath his feet and pulled up his bow. The weapon was shaking, and it's surface was even more unstable than usual.

_Damn thing might blow up if I'm too slow._ He thought as he tested his right arm.

"Works just right." He muttered as he formed an arrow in his hand.

The massive rod of energy was nocked into place a moment later, and Ichigo pulled the bow-string back.

"Dammit hands, stop trembling!" His hands were shaking from blood loss now, and his massive wounds weren't helping. Taking a deep breath, he surveyed his surroundings. The greater hollow was still accompanied by several other lesser beings, and while he could take them out, it would certainly be risky.

"Steady..." He aimed his arrow at the centipede-thing, knowing that it was the second and last hollow that could pose a threat. "Alright..." Ichigo watched as the hollow jumped into the air to attack him. "Now _DIE_!" He released the arrow, watching it's course as it split the hollow in half, hit the ground, and exploded with enough force to cause most of the other opposition to simply crumble away effortlessly.

His platform crumbled under his feet, and Ichigo crashed to the ground. The fall was enough to crack his leg, and he had to stifle a scream with his hand. His weapons faded away, and the remaining hollows began to move in. They were all weaklings, small fry, really. They weren't even supposed to be a threat, but Ichigo had gone in unprepared, got knocked around, and was now barely strong enough to lift his arms.

He didn't quite close his eyes and prepare for death.

He fought back, instead.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile, Uryu was fighting his own battles. The warehouse he had hit was filled with almost the same amount of opposition as Ichigo's. Except he had gone in with his bow prepared and his arrows knocked.<p>

_It's odd that they're collaborating like this._ He thought as he noticed the throng of hollows.

He released three arrows in rapid succession, noting that all three had caused casualties. Unfortunately, those three kills had also cost him the element of surprise. With a roar, the throng of hollows advanced on him. Uryu hit the ground and nocked an arrow, he took aim, and fired, all in the space of three short seconds.

A hollow advanced on him, with limbs seemingly reinforced with a dense iron-bone metal, and charged. The hollow swung it's blade-like arms, cutting through the winds and flying toward Uryu's unprotected flesh. Uryu expertly evaded and put a searing hot blue arrow into the monster's side. Frustrated, the hollow attacked once more, this time with a quick thrust.

Uryu evaded effortlessly and reinforced his hand with as much reishi as he could.

"A friend of mine likes to fight like you- Clumsy and uncoordinated, but full of speed and strength." Uryu dodged another strike, and another, until he had bought enough time to reach peak strength. "You'd think he wouldn't be able to teach me anything, but, that's wrong. Very wrong." Uryu slammed his fist into the hollow's abdomen, destroying it entirely.

Blood flew as the hollow's entire lower body disintegrated away, and the remains were sent soaring backwards. Uryu jumped back to avoid the spraying blood, and let fly a few more arrows.

An incoming reiatsu signature let him know that an attack was going his way. The Quincy turned around, and realized that the sun was gone.

Well, not gone, per se, but it was definitely blocked out. By a very, very large creature. And this very, very large creature, looked very, very _angry._

A flying fist crushed the ground Uryu was standing on, but not the boy himself. His bow provided the only buffer between him and hard ground, and a damn good one at that, but the impact was still felt all throughout the Quincy's body. Uryu nocked an arrow and sent it ripping right through the gargantuan fist.

The spiritual arrow tore a path about halfway up the creature's arm, which was about as long as some trees were tall. Blood spewed like water from a faucet, and as the monstrous hollow withdrew it's now crimson fist, Uryu vanished from sight. He reappeared behind the Greater Hollow's skull, and let fly over a half dozen arrows. All of which successfully penetrated the monster's cranium.

The creature roared in agony as it fell to it's knees and died. Unfortunately, it's massive form had obstructed a horde of hollows awaiting the opportunity to attack the white-clad Quincy en masse. As the monstrous hollow fell to the ground, a swarm of hollows enveloped the Quincy.

A javelin, with a shaft of bone and a tip of iron, pierced Uryu's right shoulder, ripping clean through. A set of claws, as hard and sharp as diamond, raked a deep wound across the small of Uryu's back, coming extremely close to severing his spinal cord. Finally, a blade, square and thick, but with an extremely sharp edge, sliced Uryu's narrow stomach and left forearm open. All three attacks occurred at once, driving the young Quincy into a downward spiral of pain and sanity-wrenching shock.

Uryu collapsed in mid-air and fell to the ground, his spirit-weapon crumbling into latent reishi in the air. His breathing stopped, his heart slowed, and his bodily functions began to shut down under the wave of intense shock.

_I still haven't beaten Kurosaki in a spar yet..._

Uryu's eyes slid closed, as a desperate thought ran across his mind.

_...So I can't die yet._

Uryu's eyes snapped open, his body felt lighter than ever, and his irises were glowing with the blue light of reiryoku. He stopped his descent, and regained his balance. Using _Ransōtengai_, he willed his broken body into movement.

"I can't die... Not when Kurosaki has won every one of our spars to date." Uryu spat blood as he spoke, and readied his bow.

He released a torrential swarm of arrows, downing hollows in droves, and absorbing more and more reishi to fill his quiver. His hands split open from the burn of it, and the pain only added itself to his previous injuries- But right now, it was a detached feeling. Reishi and adrenaline masked the hideous sensation almost completely. All he felt was a distant tingle, but that was all.

Uryu pulled in a tentative breath when he realized he had forgotten to breathe. He stopped and surveyed the damage... Tons of blood splatters, and just about eighteen dead hollows. It had been a close shave, but he had emerged victorious.

"Tch, let's go see how Kurosaki is doing." Uryu walked off, and despite his critical injuries, was looking completely unfazed.

* * *

><p>Minutes later, the two Quincies met at a park. They were both dripping with blood, but none of the crimson stuff was their own. Ichigo had cauterized his wounds with the burning power of his own reiryoku; Uryu had bandaged his own injuries with what he had in his pack.<p>

Both were worse for wear, but no passerby stopped to ask if they were alright- Ichigo's deathly glare and Uryu's cold indifference to his state of health had been sufficient to scare away anyone who might've cared.

"So, is school on your mind _now_, Uryu?"

"You're an idiot, Kurosaki. Right now, all I want is to get home and rest for a good while." Uryu paused for a moment. "Oh, and do me a favor, and don't mention this to Ryuuken. Damned bastard's always looking for excuses to get me to stop being a Quincy."

"I don't even talk to the bastard, why would you be worried about it?" Ichigo scoffed, but underneath it, he sounded genuinely interested.

"Because I know how much trouble you like to cause, Kurosaki."

"Tch, whatever, _Ishida._ I'm goin' home. Don't die, or anythin' stupid like that while I'm gone." Ichigo waved his hand goodbye as he walked off.

Uryu just remained stoic, trying to ignore the pain that was returning to his shattered body. He would head back in due time, but not before he slept right here on this bench. Forever.

When Ichigo got home, he climbed in through his window. While he wasn't worried about his mother harassing him, Ichigo knew she was justified, ol' Goat Face was likely to throw up a storm if his blood splattered son came into sight. Yuzu might also get worried, and Karin would yell at him for tracking blood on the carpets.

His family was an interesting bunch, to be sure, but right now, Ichigo Kurosaki didn't like interesting. All he wanted was to change up, toss his current outfit out the window, and go to sleep. He wasn't bleeding, his cracked tibia would heal quick, and he hadn't gone insane yet, but that didn't stop all the pain that was crashing into him. So, he would strip down, shower, toss his clothes out, and sleep for the next forty-eight hours.

He began to strip out of his current clothing, but was dismayed to find that the blood had fused his jeans and t-shirt to his skin. In the end, after some _very_ uncomfortable maneuvering, he managed to finally wrest the sticky blood's control away from his shirt. Then he realized that, although the bathroom was right across from his room, his family was all up and awake. They'd likely see him, and all his blood-splattered, naked glory.

To add further insult to already substantial injury, he realized that his footsteps were leading a rather horrible-looking blood trail. His plans were already shattered, and he'd barely begun them.

"A crap, well ain't this annoying." Ichigo lamented his lack of good fortune as he considered what to do.

_There's a hose outside..._ He thought as he looked out the window.

It was the dead of night, but Ichigo definitely couldn't risk being seen- A naked, blood-splattered teenager climbing out of a window would definitely attract negative attention. He considered scrubbing off with a towel, but remembered that he had left his towels elsewhere.

Finally, he thought about simply risking it and dashing for the bathroom.

It didn't take a genius to know which option he took.

_Moments later_

"Onii-Chan, why are you naked?!" Yuzu's startled voice filled the hall.

"And why the hall are you covered in blood!?" Karin shouted in tandem with her sister.

"Are those burn wounds?!" Yuzu continued, attracting attention to her parents.

"What the hell happened to you-" Ichigo quickly rushed into the bathroom just as Karin screamed. He locked the door behind him and hopped into the shower, dully noting that a towel was slung over the shower/bathtub's curtain ring.

Ichigo's day was getting worse and worse. First, there was Uryu's never-ending nagging, all about school. Then there was the hollow fiasco, where he had nearly died, he noted morosely. Then, just when he thought all was well, his sisters had decided to walk across the hallway just when he left his room. Luck wasn't on Ichigo's side today.

Water washed over him, filling the tub with sickly, watered-down blood. Ichigo washed off as best as he could, but the damned blood just stuck to him like glue. The water was hot enough to sear his skin, and turn it cherry-red, but right now, that was exactly what the teenager needed. Slowly, ever so slowly, the blood ran off of his body.

All in all, it took twenty minutes, but he stepped out clean, if not exactly comfortable. He donned a towel, and took a deep breath. With any luck, his parents wouldn't be waiting outside.

He was sorely mistaken.

As soon as the door opened, a fist darted into his vision. Ichigo dodged the attack and sidestepped his father's subsequent kick. With one hand holding his towel up, and the other focused on blocking strikes, he was unable to retaliate.

After a few moments of intense, mostly one-sided fighting, Masaki broke the fight up. Silence resumed, and Ichigo was unprepared for it. His mother asked a single, simple question. A question that Ichigo had trouble answering.

"What happened?"

Ichigo's breath caught in his mouth, he was embarrassed, angry, sad, and a bit pitiful of himself. He found an answer on his tongue- Multiple, actually, but all of them were discarded as soon as they came to be. All of them were dismissive, callous, or plain stupid.

"Ichigo?" Masaki asked again, growing more and more worried with every passing moment.

Finally, Ichigo answered, not caring that his idiot father was standing beside him, or that his little sisters were watching.

"Quincy stuff." Ichigo walked behind his door and locked it.

Today was not a good day for a teen named Ichigo Kurosaki.

Morning came and went, and Ichigo was still asleep. The sun reached it's peak, shining brightly on Karakura Town. And Ichigo was still asleep. The vast curtain of night claimed it's throne in the sky, and Ichigo was still asleep.

* * *

><p>Finally, when the sun began to set on the next day, Ichigo awoke. Having slept for an entire forty-four hours, he wasn't far off in his earlier prediction. He awoke hungry and thirsty, but he wasn't quite willing to ask his parents for anything. His embarrassment and fear from earlier was still ringing in his head.<p>

Instead, he climbed out the window after getting dressed, and headed down to the nearest restaurant. In a surprising turn of events, Orihime Inoue had been walking down the road when Ichigo leaped from his window, falling two stories and landing on the pavement with grace. It was also a coincidence that the wind flapped his white t-shirt up, and exposing his chest.

"H-hi, Kurosaki-kun." Orihime, blushing a light pink, greeted him politely.

"Oh, hey Inoue. Where'r you going?" Ichigo asked absently.

The two, while not friends, weren't quite strangers either. Awhile ago, Orihime's brother was killed in an accident. Ichigo's family had tried to save him, but he died en route to the hospital. Ichigo, being as young as he was, yet still experienced enough to know the loss of a family member, tried comforting the distraught girl.

They had shared classes back in Junior High, and it was clear the same would be said for High School, but they still weren't friends. Ichigo's emotionally distant, hard-ass reputation made him difficult to approach. They also knew each other through Tatsuki, though Ichigo and her hadn't really talked in awhile.

"Oh, just picking up dinner."

"Really? That's weird. I'm doin' the same. In fact, I was about to go down to that cafe down the road." Ichigo mentioned casually.

"That's _really _weird, because I was going there too!" She wasn't, but she could use an excuse to get closer to the aloof teenager. Being as naive as she was, the girl misinterpreted her crush for Ichigo as 'true love.'

"Huh." Ichigo didn't really say anything else, much to Orihime's dismay.

"Maybe we could go together..." Her voice trailed off. Normally, Orihime wasn't this forward, not by a long-shot, but she felt oddly confident today.

"What, like a date?" Much to Ichigo's amusement, Orihime's blush deepened to scarlet upon mention of a date.

Despite being emotionally withdrawn and quiet, Ichigo wasn't _completely_ dense. He knew how Orihime felt, and while he didn't feel the same way, he thought it funny the way she blustered around him. He'd break the news to her some day... Just not today.

"Y-y-yes, I'd like that." Orihime looked down, unable to meet her crush's eyes.

"M'kay. Let's go then." Ichigo smirked inwardly as he started walking.

The two walked in silence, to Ichigo, it was a companionable silence. To Orihime, it was an awkward, come-on-why-don't-you-say-something kind of silence. The cafe was a short walk away, but to the flustered young girl, every step seemed to take an eternity.

In her supreme effort to simply _break the silence_, she said something she would later regret.

"People say you got seriously hurt yesterday." Only now did this cross the girl's mind. She hadn't brought it up earlier because he had looked so healthy, what with leaping from a window and all, that she didn't think it true, that they were just rumors.

To her surprise, (and slight fear) Ichigo merely burst out laughing.

"Trust me, in my line of work, those kinds of injuries are pretty common." Ichigo had given away a lot more information than he should've, but his mind, still affected by blood loss, was pretty dull today.

_What the hell is Kurosaki-kun doing to get hurt so badly?_

Before she could ask, she found Ichigo already talking.

"Oh, and don't ask what I do for a living... You'd live longer and sleep quieter that way." Unbeknownst to the orange-haired teenager, his 'friendly warning' sounded a lot more like a threat.

Before Orihime could start asking questions, they were at the cafe in question. Ichigo opened the door for her, and she walked in, dull and oblivious to the world around her.

"Table for two, please." She vaguely heard Ichigo's voice speak four words she had heard time and time again in her dreams.

Ichigo was led to to a small, circular table, with Orihime being subsequently led by his hand. They both sat down. Ichigo cradled his head in his hands, waiting for a waitress, and Orihime stared blankly ahead as she thought about what Ichigo had said in his blood loss-induced daze.

_Kurosaki-kun... What have you been doing?_

The waitress came back, and Ichigo was forced to order for her, due to her blank, unresponsive state.

"Uh, a glass of water and some..." Ichigo paused as he assessed Orihime's appearance and what she might've liked. "Sweetened tea." He finished.

"Coming right up." The waitress, just a bit too peppy and cheerful for Ichigo's taste, chirped musically before dashing off.

Ichigo thought that Orihime's blank stare was cute at first, but he quickly got sick of it.

"Oi, Inoue, snap out of it!" He snapped his fingers in her face, but to no avail. He briefly considered slapping her, but Ishida had drilled the concept of Chivalry into his head time and time again. Chief among that most honorable of concepts, was the rule of: "Thou shalt not slap thy woman."

Honestly, girls and guys weren't that different. Why couldn't he just treat her like he would any other guy who started zoning out.

Finally, he slammed his fist onto the wooden table. The clank of silverware and the light splintering of wood was enough to catch her attention... As well as half the cafe's, too. Thankfully, no one seemed to care much, and Orihime's eyes quickly regained their light.

"Finally. I've been tryin' to get your attention for the past five minutes."

She misinterpreted what he said and quickly blushed, her cheeks growing pink for a few moments.

"Oh, sorry Kurosaki-kun. I was just thinking about what you said earlier."

"Well maybe you could think about what to order, and not what I said." A moment passed and he continued. "Because, like I said, don't think about it. You'll live longer and sleep better." He repeated the phrase, finding that he liked the sound of it.

Orihime didn't like the sound of that. It sounded like a threat, but with the concerned and friendly way he said it, it sounded like a warning... Really, the orange-haired teen could be so confusing at times.

The waitress returned shortly afterward, and absently noted that the girl that had come in with Kurosaki-san was looking livelier and a bit flushed. He handed a glass of water to Ichigo, and Inoue her sweetened tea.

"Wait, I don't remember ordering..." Orihime's voice trailed off as the waitress left her sight.

"Oh, you were looking kinda distant, so I ordered for you." Ichigo's voice was fairly absent as he thumbed through a menu.

Orihime took in a draft of the tea, and instantly smiled a little.

"How did you know I love sweet tea so much?" Orihime couldn't help but be satisfied. If her Kurosaki-kun knew so much about her, maybe he felt the same way?

"Oh, I took a wild guess."

And her hopes fell away just like that.

Ichigo went back to his menu. Orihime pretended to go to hers. Love was such a confusing emotion, and more confusing, was love with Kurosaki-kun.

* * *

><p>The dinner went well, in Ichigo's terms anyway. No embarrassing fiascoes, no hollow attacks, and no more questioning from Orihime. Never mind the fact that it was spent in companionable (awkward) silence, never mind that he was receiving odd (hateful) looks from other customers, and never mind that Orihime had accidentally spotted the huge burn wound on his chest from when he had cauterized a bad cut.<p>

So, with his appetite sated, and his social obligations completed, he went right on to bed. Now, after today, he realized two things, well, confirmed two things, really: He did not love Orihime, although she was very amusing. And Orihime had a crush on him. Both things had been painfully obvious before, but confirmation was always a helpful thing.

During his dinner, he also had time to think about things. As it stood, Uryu and him were the only defenders that Karakura town had against hollows, because no Shinigami had ever been spotted here. In addition, there seemed to be an influx of spiritually rich souls pouring in, which in turn attracted more hollows. These hollows were subsequently killed by Uryu and Ichigo, which spread reishi into the air.

In turn, this attracted _more_ spiritually enriched souls in, and then more hollows. Balance needed to be kept, and there was only one way to do it. As grudging as Ichigo was to admit it, they needed a Shinigami before the balance shattered in this one little town. Another little thing that he remembered was that school was starting the day after tomorrow, and he was royally screwed in terms of supplies.

He considered bumming some off of Uryu, and even went so far as to create a little scenario in his head as to what would happen.

The scenario did not turn out in his favor.

Finally, he also realized that, at the moment, he wasn't strong enough. He had nearly been bested by a pack of hollows. Strong hollows, yes, but they weren't quite at the level of Menos, and if he couldn't fight them off effectively, he couldn't protect the town. Starting next week, he'd need to start training. Training, balancing school, and juggling a social life in for good matter.

_Dear god, why is life so damn complicated?_ He thought sullenly as he went to bed.

* * *

><p><strong>AN**

**Huh, that wasn't all that difficult to write. Got a bit (in my mind, at least) fluffy at the end, but I kinda like the sharp contrast from 'bloody combat' to 'light, fluffy dinner'. I hope you liked it, because this is mostly just 'relationship practice' for the future.**

**Oh, these fight scenes, get used to em'. My writing really starts to slow down if I don't A) have a clear goal in mind, or B) have a bloody round of combat every few thousand words. Oh, chapter-length too, I'll try to make each one at least six thousand words. I really should make it longer though... Tell me, longer chapters with longer update times, or current lengths with a relatively shorter update time?**


	4. New Arrivals

**A/N**

**Whew, second chapter in one day! This well, actually, two days. It's 12:04 at the moment... Damn, so close.**

**It just dawned on me that I've been confusing the Quincy Bangle with the Quincy Cross. Huh, I won't change it though. Bangle sounds so much better than Cross, don't you think?**

**Oh, and about the fluff from yesterday, if I wasn't clear enough, IT DOES NOT MEAN THIS IS AN ICHI-HIME STORY. It's just practice for the future.**

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 3<strong>

**New Arrivals**

"Make sure you study for the quiz one Thursday..." Ichigo listened on and off as the schoolteacher droned monotonously. His attention was scattered, his hands, restless.

His wounds still ached, despite the sheer amount of reishi he had poured into them to make them heal faster. The teacher's words couldn't be less important to him, after all, what was a test in the face of a ravenous hollow.

"...Will account for twenty-five percent of your grade..." Ichigo heard briefly.

While on the subject of hollows, Ichigo noted that they had been attacking in larger numbers now. It seemed that his earlier prediction was correct... The higher amounts of reishi in the air was definitely drawing in more spiritually enriched souls, as well as hollows to devour them. It certainly wasn't helping that Keigo was seeing faint outlines of spirits, either.

A faint buzz from his pocket alerted him to a hollow. Ichigo looked to Uryu, and Uryu looked right back.

_I'll copy the notes for you._ Uryu seemed to mouth.

"Uh, Ms. Ochi, can I go to the restroom?" Ichigo said, sounding just a _bit_ too urgent for his own good.

"Okay, Kurosaki-san." The instructor paused, and her eyes narrowed when she saw her student literally _dash_ from his seat to the door. "Don't forget to sign out!" She called to the student, despite knowing that he was already gone.

It didn't take long for a thin layer of whispering to start. Ichigo was a weird character; He took too many bathroom breaks, he was sometimes seen running on rooftops, and he was an honors student. He was also inordinately fast and reflexive for his age, and he always emerged from fights unscathed. It was odd, for sure, and it definitely provided material for the rumor mill.

Sometimes people thought that the orange-haired teen was crazy, others thought he was some kind of 'superhero', oddly enough, those who said _that_ were _also_ able to 'see the dead'. Most, however, thought nothing of it. A strange kid was nothing new, and they did have their own lives to live, didn't they?

Ichigo, almost immediately after closing the classroom door behind him, opened a window and jumped outside. He looked at his alarm- A whitish-Grey cell-phone looking thing, much like a Shinigami's _denreishinki_, in fact, it's design was based off of one that had been recovered over a dozen years ago when Soken tried to save a dying Shinigami.

The device told him that a hollow- As powerful as a Gillian, but small as a bus- was attacking souls in a nearby park. He had to be fast, because the size and strength of this one told Ichigo that untold amounts of damage would be wreaked if he let it go untouched for more than a few moments.

* * *

><p>With a burst of <em>hirenkyaku<em> he arrived in the park a few moments later, bow drawn and feet steady. He had learned form his last encounter that to arrive unarmed was arriving flat-footed.

The hollow looked distinctly boar-like, with big, ridiculous horns on either side of it's snout-like face. It's feet ended in vicious and, unfortunately, blood-stained talons. It's legs, plated in bone and spiked for good measure, also had a fair bit of blood adorning them. It's greenish-brown body was fat and swollen, and a dead Plus was lying on the ground not far from the hollow.

It didn't take a genius to figure out what happened.

Ichigo's eyes were alight with rage, his head screaming for him to take vengeance for the now dead soul. He knew what happened when his bow or his arrows killed a hollow- They died. The hollow died, and so did everyone it had ever devoured... Now the soul that had just been eaten would have to die as well, forever.

"Damn you hollow!" Ichigo's bowstring was pulled back, and a blue bolt of energy shot forward.

_"You'll have to be faster than that, HUMAN!"_ The hollow screamed maniacally as it dodged out of the flying bolt of reishi.

Ichigo's frown deepened and he charged the hollow, rage and sorrow mounting on his psyche. He struck once, but was angry to find that his blade-bow failed to cut past the monster's thick _hierro._

The hollow laughed hysterically as it swatted the furious Quincy aside, cutting him deep in between the ribs. Groaning in pain, Ichigo forced himself to stand up as he surveyed his injuries.

_Three cracked ribs, a ruptured-fucking-organ._ He thought as he pulled his bowstring back.

The hollow charged him, all four lugs pumping and jaws snapping open and closed. Ichigo fired the first bolt, which the hollow automatically side-stepped. He fired a second, and the hollow swatted it aside.

Yet, he wasn't done. The arrows he fired were weak, barely capable of sustaining their own mass. This one would be different.

"Die, hollow scum." Ichigo instantly forced reiryoku into his bow and fired a bolt.

The blast of energy was as strong as any Gillian's _cero_, but infinitely more compressed. The boar-hollow attempted to swat it aside- And lost it's right leg in the process. The creature hit the ground and roared in agony. Ichigo capitalized on his opportunity, attacking with his bow as best as he could.

The hollow jumped back; it was a lopsided, clumsy maneuver that only barely saved it's life. With the haste and fervor that only a being of instinct could manage, it forced reiryoku into it's stump of a wound. White fluid burst from the injury, and the arm reconstituted itself. The new arm was a glistening white compared to the dirty gray of it's body, and had no armored bones or spikes to adorn it, although those vicious talons remained.

_"I'll kill you, insolent brat!"_ The hollow's jaws opened wide, almost impossibly wide, and a black-streaked yellow orb formed inside.

Ichigo reached inside his shirt's pocket, and pulled out his mentor's Bangle. He had yet to form a second spirit weapon with it, simply because Gramps had once told him not to rush things, and he wouldn't disobey that advice yet. Still, the five-pointed medallion still made a great focusing point for his reiryoku.

Ichigo slipped the bangle onto his right hand, and outstretched his hand. He opened his fist and faced the growing yellow orb.

The _cero_ fired, Ichigo stood still.

Focusing his reiryoku, as well as any reishi he could absorb, into the Bangle, Ichigo stood calm in the face of the rushing beam. Slowly, a swirling ball of energy began to build up in front of the medallion. It's surface was white-hot, and a deep blue glow emanated from it. The heat baking off the orb was immense, just over 6200 degrees and still climbing. If the orb wasn't made of Ichigo's own energy, he would have melted just like the ground he was standing on.

The orb had swollen to the size of his hand in moments, and was released with a thunder-clap of sound. The _recoil_ of the blast was enough to crack the bones in his open hand, and send his body staggering back. The _shockwave_ that the released blast generated dissipated the oncoming _cero_ into reishi. The _explosion_ of blue energy from his palm was enough to incinerate the hollow, as well as half the park.

"Might've been... Just a little bit... Overkill..." Ichigo staggered forward, his weapon dissipating.

He had used this attack only once before- Six years ago, when his power was only a fraction of what he just displayed. Back then, he was sparring with Uryu, and his powers had been limited by just about two thirds, yet, the power the attack had was still enough to severely injure Uryu.

People quickly came to check on what had happened. All they had seen was a bright flash of light, some trees on fire, and the ground scorched. Then, a teenager had walked out of the chaos, looking dusty, bloody, and more than a little pained. No one approached him, however, because of his eyes.

Those fury-filled eyes that seemed to scream _stay away._

The police didn't question him. The fire department let him go. Hell, even the ambulances let him be. Especially when the teen just kept repeating "gotta get to class." over and over again.

_Dammit... That was enough of a shock to stop my heart._ It was true, too. He had sent enough reiryoku and reiatsu through his body to shock his heart into stopping. It was sheer luck alone that his most vital organ had been restarted a moment later when the recoil of the explosion sent another wave of energy through him.

If his control was shoddy enough to kill _himself_ with his _own_ attack, one could only guess how much damage he could cause to someone else; how much damage he could cause to an innocent by mistake. His lack of control was never a problem before, he'd simply shrug it off and keep slashing... Now that he had a power with enough force to kill a Gillian, and nothing to control it with... God only knew how much damage he could do to someone who didn't deserve it.

God only knew what he'd do when he accidentally killed an ally or a friend. Because right now, it was a matter of 'when', not 'if'.

* * *

><p>"Kurosaki-san, what happened to you?!" Ms. Ochi almost screamed when she saw Ichigo walk in, cut, bruised, and burnt.<p>

Immediately, all eyes turned to the supposed delinquent, and all eyes widened minutely. Uryu included. Ichigo really wasn't looking worse for wear; he was looking devastated. His clothes were bloodied. They were not soaked in the stuff, like before, but still bloody enough to cause the more squeamish students to faint. His hair was unkempt, and also a bit blood-stained. There were visible cuts on his arms and hands, and his right hand was hanging limp by his side, neglected and swollen.

"A gang got me. Bastards were waitin' just down the hall. Dragged me out and beat me down, freakin' bastards." Ichigo lied through his teeth, but in his advanced state of injury, no one was willing to challenge him.

Ms. Ochi didn't bring up his use of foul language, unlike her usual self. This time, she seemed genuinely worried.

"You should go home, Ichigo. Injuries like these can't be tended by a nurse. Your father is a doctor, isn't he?"

"I'm fine, Ochi-sensei. I'll live, trust me on that." Ichigo staggered to his desk, which came as no surprise to the shocked students in the room.

He sat in his desk next to Uryu, and cradled his head with his left palm, as if today was as normal as any other. The students, on the other hand, stared openly at the boy, completely shocked at this. Now, one of two things would happen: People would begin to think of him as a delinquent and avoid him (the desirable outcome for both of the two Quincies) or they would start to watch him like a hawk to see if the 'superhero' rumors were true.

As it stood, things could go one way or another.

Time passed, the silence did not. Ms. Ochi watched the boy, who seemed to be impatiently waiting for her to start talking again, tapping his pencil on the desk absentmindedly.

Finally, after several more minutes of silence, Ms. Ochi picked the lesson back up, but without any sort of real enthusiasm. Likewise, the class didn't pay attention. All eyes were trained on Ichigo, and the attention made him want to snap.

Noise picked up again after a few more minutes, and while people still watched Ichigo, they also paid equal amounts of attention to the lesson. After another twenty minutes, they only looked at the orange-haired teen from the corner of their eyes, deigning to believe his excuse and get on with school instead of dwelling on things.

Finally, Uryu leaned over, looking worried and smug at the same time. It was an interesting combination.

"How many?" He asked simply, not wanting to give too much information to potential eavesdroppers.

"1G." It was an unofficial code between them, made to prevent sensitive information from being leaked out.

'G' represented Gillians or Gillian-class Menos. 'A' represented Adjuchas, although it hadn't been used yet. 'L' represented lesser hollows, and 'S' represented stronger hollows.

Uryu stayed quiet after that, not asking for his friend to elaborate or why he was so injured. All that could wait until they got someplace where people wouldn't hear them. Ichigo, meanwhile, tried to ignore the growing pain in his body. His hand was broken and his arm was cracked, it certainly didn't feel very good.

The good part about it was that he knew how to fix it. Taking a point from the Shinigami and their healing methods, all he had to do was focus reiryoku into a particular area, and it would accelerate the healing process. He had tried to explain this to Uryu, but as it stood, he was hopeless at it.

_"Most Quincies don't have massive reiryoku reserves like you, Ichigo. We rely on latent reishi in the air to kill our enemies, not innate reserves. You can heal yourself because you have reserves capable of it, I can't because my own reserves are only just enough to sustain my spiritual awareness."_

He had told him, and once again, Uryu had indirectly told him just how different he was from the status quo of both Quincies and humans.

Ichigo had ignored him at the time, and he ignored him now.

He could fix his wounds later, but for now, with witnesses all about, it would be pretty suspicious if his wounds began to mend on their own. For now, he would bear the pain, he was just glad that this was the last class of the day.

So, when the bell sounded off, he was relieved, but not for the end of school. He was relieved because he could finally get home and have a good long discussion about this. He just hoped Uryu wouldn't chew him out like he did the last time they got into a serious fight. Uryu had gotten one look at the massive burn wound on his abdomen, and had launched into the _longest fucking rant_ about safety and preparedness he had ever heard.

Ichigo, in his excitement, started to run home. He was too impatient to walk, but still aware enough to know that using _hirenkyaku_ would get him in huge trouble. So, he ran at paces that, while average to someone like Tatsuki or himself, were nearly superhuman to any and all observers.

Uryu ran behind him with a similar pace, and although he wasn't lagging behind, he wasn't exactly pushing ahead either. At the pace they had set, the two-mile distance had been cleared in less than nine minutes.

Ichigo arrived at his yard, wounds already healed and chest heaving in and out. Uryu looked similar, except he didn't have injuries to deal with. Ichigo motioned for Uryu to follow him as he leaped onto the roof from the ground- It had become a bit of a custom for Ichigo. He would climb in through his window, whether it was open or closed, and subsequently avoid his father's 'greetings'.

Uryu followed wordlessly, accepting the hand that Ichigo outstretched to bring him up. Ichigo forced his window open and stepped inside, and the Quincy behind him followed suit. Finally inside the relative safety of the house, the two of them sat quietly on the floor.

"The hollow. Was it strong?" Uryu asked quietly, his voice barely rising above a murmur.

"Definitely. As much reiryoku as a Gillian, no doubt, but compressed into the size of a regular hollow... How the hell does something get that strong?"

"I don't know. But your hand, it was broken when we came in- Did the hollow do that?"

"No, that was my own doing. It was some half-cocked attack that ended up being just a _bit_ too powerful. In fact, so much reiryoku was sent through my veins at once, that my heart stopped. It restarted when the attack went off though, the back-blast brought me back, but it also broke my arm."

Uryu's eyes widened in surprise. "It was strong enough to stop your heart?!" His voice rose to a near yell, but fell away when he realized that he and Ichigo weren't alone in the house.

"Yeah, and the attack itself incinerated half the park, as well as the hollow it was aimed at."

"Describe to me _exactly_ what you did." Uryu, now deadly serious, had brought out a notepad and a pen from his schoolbag.

"Eh, really? Alright then... Let's see, you remember six years ago, when we were sparring with Gramps?"

"How could I forget, you put me in the hospital." Uryu didn't sound resentful, but he wasn't genial either. Not by a long shot.

"Well, that was the first time I used that attack- My power cut by two thirds and six years younger. Today was the second time."

"Get to the point, Kurosaki." Uryu, now slightly impatient, deepened his voice.

"Right, right. Well, when Gramps-" Ichigo paused for a moment before re-continuing. "-When Sensei died, he gave me his Bangle as a final gift, just like he gave you the Sanrei Glove. Well, I used it today to focus my reiryoku."

Ichigo paused to clear his throat. "This orb of reiryoku started to grow in my hand. A _cero_ was comin' right for me, so I released the orb. The orb exploded, and a beam of energy shot from my hands. The shockwave from the blast was enough to destroy the _cero _completely, and the beam did a huge bit of damage."

Uryu was quiet for a moment, then he started to get a bit worried.

"Ichigo... That sounds a lot like the kido that Shinigami use..." Uryu went over the notes he had taken for a moment. "...You're positive you used the Bangle to focus your power, right?"

"What do ya think I am, _Ishida_, an idiot?"

"Do you even have to ask, _Kurosaki_?"

Both of them were quiet for a short while afterward.

"Yes, I used the Bangle as my focusing point." Ichigo spoke up, breaking the thick tension.

"... A central point to focus reiatsu... A beam of energy... A back-blast capable of killing it's user... I can't believe I'm saying this, Ichigo, but your power is extremely similar to both Shinigami, hollows, and Quincies. It's like you're taking Quincy reishi manipulation, a hollow's _cero_, and a Shinigami's kido to create an attack strong enough to kill the person using it. If you can't control your power, using that attack will literally kill you."

Ichigo took it all in stride, already suspecting most of what his friend had just said.

"I know. Ishida, I need to start reigning my power in soon, or I might end up killing someone who doesn't deserve it... And, we need to start finding other ways to get rid of hollows."

That last bit threw the Quincy _completely_ off.

"Why do we need to stop? Our attacks work just fine, I mean sure, you just about killed yourself today, but-"

"Stop it, Uryu. That's not the problem. Have you noticed that stronger and stronger hollows are coming here recently? I think they're attracted by all the reishi in the air... And that reishi get's made when we destroy hollows. If we don't stop, y'know, killing them _permanently_, then this town, and the both of us are in trouble. We need a Shinigami, whether you're willing to admit it or not."

Uryu opened his mouth to speak, then closed it again. "What are you thinking?" He asked quietly.

"Two things. We get a couple Shinigami to come here and watch over the town. We weaken hollows and save those in danger, and the representatives come in and finish the hollows off. Over time, the reishi would fade away, and the hollow's would start coming in weaker numbers. Second, we get some Shinigami to come here, kill them, and take their zanpakuto. Before you ask, yeah, I know the second suggestion is really stupid, but I was thinkin' about it."

"But what about Sensei! It was because of Shinigami that he died!" Uryu's voice rose a few decibels.

"Dammit, Uryu. Can't you see that this is what he'd want. He always wanted Shinigami and Quincies to work together, not bicker endlessly."

Uryu's eyes widened at the revelation, then narrowed suspiciously.

"Sensei was my grandfather. So _don't_ talk about him like you know him." Uryu said with a venomous tone that suggested violence if he didn't shut up. "If you talk so disrespectfully again, you _will_ become my enemy."

Ichigo was dumbfounded. Whatever the hell had caused _this_ to happen... Uryu was never like this, never. Before he could respond, however, Uryu had vanished with a burst of _hirenkyaku_, leaving Ichigo behind to simmer in his own thoughts.

"Well that was... Weird, to say the least." Although Ichigo was a bit worried, he shook it off quickly. Uryu had thick skin, it was fair to assume that things would be patched over soon.

His math homework, however, was not so easily shaken.

* * *

><p><em>Seireitei, 15 days ago<em>

"Oh, Kiyone, would you deliver this form to Rukia please." Ukitake asked his third seat, knowing the exact words she would say.

"Yes Ukitake-Taichou! It is an honor to serve you!" The girl promptly took the form and headed off, a light shining in her eyes.

Ukitake couldn't help but smile wanly as she left, knowing that this would be Rukia's first real assignment. Karakura town, such a pleasant name, was it not? The captain quickly went to work, sorting through his paperwork and getting started for the day. He had gone through a bit of extra trouble for the girl, but he figured it would be worth it to get some real experience under her belt.

All in all, it looked like a good decision. But as history has proven time and time again, looks could be deceiving.

Ukitake regretted finalizing the mission form the very next day.

* * *

><p><em>Karakura Town, today<em>

A black-clad figure stood atop a wooden pole, the moon against her back and a blade at her hip. She was silent, but the world around her wasn't. Cars honked, people bustled about, and dogs barked. However, above all, a hollow's distant roar was heard, something that would have made her bristle in fear had she not been briefed about it beforehand.

Karakura town had become a very spiritually enriched land in the past five or so years. In addition, the Twelfth Division had reported a drop in souls in the cycle of rebirth, that coincided perfectly with the increase in reishi. Overall, the whole thing stunk of Quincies, and if they were discovered, they were to be reported to the Seireitei.

"Let's get to work." The Shinigami said as she vanished with a burst of _shunpo_.

Rukia arrived to find a hollow, about as big as the two story building it was standing beside. It's body was huge and humanoid, with muscular arms and legs. It had a fish-like mask, the very thing it was named for. Her _denreishinki_ identified it as Fishbone D, a somewhat powerful hollow that had about a third of the strength as an average Gillian. It was strong, and had only gotten stronger as it feasted on souls, but Rukia was probably able to take it.

_Probably._

The hollow roared and charged at the now exposed Shinigami, practically tasting the delicious scent of her. It's arms outstretched, and it's jaws wide open.

Then, just as Rukia prepared to strike, something struck her from behind. Flying through mid-air, she spotted the thing that had attacked her- A large hollow with strange bodily proportions. It's legs were tiny, almost nonexistent, but it's arms were huge and muscle-ey. It's knuckles were armored with bone and metal, looking like knuckle dusters.

The mask was... Strange, to say the least. At the very best, it could be described as a colorless western wrestling mask, with black motifs painted on for good measure.

Rukia hit the ground and steadied herself, looking up to see Fishbone D coming down for a bite. Rukia jumped out of the way and twisted in midair to parry a strike from the wrestler-hollow. She was sent flying into a building by the force of the attack alone. Crumpled against a concrete wall, she slumped to the ground, bloodied but far from broken.

_This... Did not go as planned._ She thought sardonically as she got to her feet.

The wrestler-hollow charged forward, using it's massive arms as stilts to get closer to the wounded Shinigami. Rukia jumped out of the first strike, only to be grabbed two-handed by Fishbone D, who opened his jaws wide.

Rukia cut off the hollow's fingers with her zanpakuto and vanished from the creature's grasp, reappearing behind the wrestler-hollow a moment later. She severed on arm, and moved to impale the creature with a single fluid movement.

Then, Fishbone D appeared behind her with a garganta. Rukia was punched by a huge, open palm moments later and sent soaring through the air. Blood spewed from her wounds as she hit the ground, and her vision doubled over for a few moments. Both hollows advanced on her, the wrestler-hollow just a bit more clumsy with only a single arm to support it's weight.

Fishbone D sent a flying punch for the downed Rukia. She shifted her blade up and held with both hands, barely managing to stymie the force behind the blow. Then, the giant hollow's left fist came flying into Rukia's peripheral vision. She was hit, fully and sent flying once again. She felt ribs break and organs rupture when she hit the ground, and the pain was enough to dull her senses to oblivion.

The wrestler-hollow reached her a moment later, looking only somewhat miffed as it charged a bright green cero in it's wrestler-masked jaws. Still, however wounded she might be, death was not a concept that Rukia liked very much. With her blade angled _just_ right, she stabbed with enough force to shunt the cero aside. Her blade impaled the hollow, and she ripped it across it's chest, effectively tearing it in half.

Hollow blood, blackish-red and thicker than oil, spewed onto the ground and into Rukia's eyes. As searing pain sunk into her eyes, she struggled to wipe the horrific stuff off her. Fishbone D, despite it's animal intellect, knew a good opportunity when it presented itself. It lunged at Rukia, jaws clamping and ready to eviscerate the Shinigami.

It never even got within ten feet.

Three blue rods of light, each one aflame with intense cerulean fire, cut the hollow through the brain, shoulder, and knees respectively. Fishbone D fell backward, wounded but far from dead. It disappeared behind a garganta as Ichigo stopped to look at the wounded Shinigami.

"Oi, you alive in there?" He asked as he waved his hands in front of the Shinigami.

"Who are you? And how can you see me!" Rukia asked with her hands still covering her eyes.

"No time for introductions. Get that zanpakuto ready or I'll take it from ya, that thing'll be back soon." Ichigo instinctively focused his reiryoku on his Bangle.

"Dammit, you're just a human, what can you do?!"

Ichigo smirked as she opened her eyes, which, while red and irritated, were very clearly intact. Ichigo manifested his familiar, unstable and probably-dangerous bow, and said to the Shinigami:

"Don't doubt us humans, I bet we'd surprise ya!"

As if on cue, Fishbone D jumped out of a garganta and moved to crush both the Shinigami and the newcomer, the very delicious-smelling newcomer. Ichigo forced reiryoku and reishi into his bow with his left hand, and manifested arrows with his right. He fired off four of them before Rukia could blink, and the hollow's lower body was gone instantly.

Ichigo forced reiryoku into his limbs, an action that was the starting point for the Quincy art of Blut, and kicked the flying 300 Kilo hollow aside. Although the impact was painful, it was far from agony. Ichigo had long ago mastered the art of reiryoku infusion.

"Finish that thing off soon, Shinigami." Ichigo said, not looking at the badly wounded girl in front of him.

"I'm a bit hurt, right now..." Rukia groaned as she lied there, her blood staining the building she leaned against.

"Then I'll do it for you." Ichigo promptly took Rukia's zanpakuto in one hand, and charged at the hollow.

With a burst of _hirenkyaku_, he appeared on the hollow's head. With a skillful slash, the hollow was dead and disintegrating, sending it and all the souls it had ever eaten over to the Soul Society. Ichigo took a breath and tossed the blade back to the wounded Shinigami, not caring if she caught it or not.

"Hey! That's dangerous!" Rukia yelled indignantly even as she caught the blade by the hilt.

"Don't care, Shinigami. Now tell me, how bad are your injuries?"

"It's Rukia, and if you 'don't care' then why are you asking about m-" Rukia paused mid sentence as a wave of pain rippled across her abdomen.

With a sigh, Ichigo got closer to the Shinigami and leaned down.

"Ruptured organs and broken bones make you a very unhappy girl, Rukia. C'mon, my family runs a clinic just a few blocks down."

Rukia just looked at him with incredulity as the pain died down. "They can't see me, idiot, I'm a soul!"

Ichigo only looked back and laughed. "My mother and father are spiritually aware, my sister can see ghosts, even if she doesn't believe in em', and my other sister can see the outlines of ghosts. You'll be fine. If you really _can't_ walk though, I guess I'll have to carry you."

"Stupid human, I can heal myself!" As if to prove it, her hands started to glow bright green as she mended her own injuries... Or at least, tried to.

"Reiatsu exhaustion?" Ichigo asked dully.

Later, Rukia would come to wonder how any why he knew all this stuff, like reiryoku and reiatsu, or how he had made a weapon out of reishi, but for now, in her pain-filled state, she didn't care.

"C'mon, let's go. My family'll help you, even if you are a Shinigami."

At the moment, Rukia couldn't refuse. This human was her only chance to survive; With no more energy left to heal her wounds, she'd die without quick surgical care. Ichigo helped the woman up, and carried her most of the way there.

"What's your name, human." Rukia asked tiredly, even as a lazy rill of blood leaked from the corner of her lip.

"Ichigo. Ichigo Kurosaki. Now hush, the doctor will be in soon." Ichigo sounded oddly amused by the whole thing.

In fact, the human seemed weird the whole time. He was sarcastic, powerful, and more than a little dismissive at the fact that she had _ruptured organs_ among all things. In the face of this, he was calm, and even made little jokes as Rukia writhed in pain. And, as if all that was enough, his hair was orange. Who ever heard of orange hair!?

Truly, humans were weird creatures.

"Oi, Dad, we've got a Shinigami in need of help!" Rukia couldn't help but cringe at that. Not only was the door to the house still open, and thus people could hear him shout, but he was also extremely open about it to his family.

"Really? How bad?"

"Real bad. You better get started soon, or she just might die on ya." Ichigo unceremoniously shoved the injured Rukia into the doctor's arms, staining his white surgeon's apron with blood.

Frankly, Rukia didn't like being handled like a porcelain doll. She planned on making that fact _painfully_ obvious the next chance she got. With extra emphasis on painful. In fact, in her fervor to create a plan, her pain was temporarily forgotten. By the time she was brought to the bed, she had a plan already half formed in her head. Thus, when the anesthesia kicked in, she went out with a devious smirk plastered on her face.

"What a weird little midget, don't you think Dad?"

"What did she say her name was? This one looks kinda familiar..." Isshin's voice trailed off, sounding oddly suspicious and serious.

"Rukia. Why?"

"No last name huh..." The doctor paused for a moment. Then he looked at Ichigo long and hard.

"THINK FAST SON!" Isshin's fist was already flying about halfway through that sentence.

Ichigo had been caught flat-footed, and he knew it. He really should have known better than to fall out of guard when his dad was involved. In response, Ichigo raised an open palm and caught the blow. It hurt somewhat, but it was nothing compared to the hollows he had to deal with in recent days. He twisted Goat Face's wrist up, twisting it further and further than the joint should ever go.

"Alright! I cry uncle, just stop it!" His father cried in tones that were notably false.

"I'd knock you out, old man, but you have a patient to work on." Ichigo, instead of kneeing his idiot dad in the head like he planned, delivered a fierce hay-maker to his gut.

Ichigo walked off a short while later, retiring to his room and wondering what the _hell_ he'd just done. He'd revealed that he was a Quincy, given the location of his family, and identified himself to a Shinigami all in the space of a few short minutes. This would invariably lead to bad things, and it was his fault.

_Oh God, even I'm admitting that I was reckless._ He thought as he opened his door.

His room was still clean as always, and meticulous to a point. He shut the door behind him and walked over to his bed. Next to it, was his alarm clock, looking irritating as always. Dully, he noted that it was about twelve-thirty at night, why Goat Face was so readily available at the time, Ichigo didn't know or care all that much.

He practically jumped into bed and fell asleep nigh instantly, despite the thin sheen of slick blood that would stain the sheets by morning. He slept fitfully that night, suffering through nightmares where the Shinigami slaughtered his family and killed the ones he loved... Nightmares where he himself was dissected by the Shinigami, held under a bright light and a scalpel.

Ichigo hoped to whatever higher power existed out there that he hadn't royally screwed his family.

He hoped to God that this Rukia character would be a merciful person...

...Or if it came to it, at least easy to kill.

* * *

><p><strong>AN**

**So Rukia's back... I kinda thought about leavin' her out of the story, at least, not until later, but I really like her as a character. I won't say anything as stupid as 'don't like don't read', but I will tell you that complaints will be met with intense sarcasm.**

**YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.**


	5. Got it Under Control

**A/N**

**Jeez, y'know, between two Fitness classes, running a quarter mile home every day, and then walking three dogs up and down that same quarter mile individually, my energy's been really sapped lately.**

**Oh, and sorry about the late update. I had planned on making it about four hours earlier, but my internet decided to off itself. Stupid broadband...**

* * *

><p>Ichigo awoke to the blare of an alarm clock. Struggling to get out of bed, the teenaged Quincy fell to the ground in a clumsy heap.<p>

"Ah, shut up will you!" He shouted at the alarm as he got to his feet.

Bleary eyed and still recovering from injuries he didn't know he had, Ichigo slammed his fist down on the vile contraption. Silence filled the room, and Ichigo breathed a sigh of relief. He quickly sauntered into the bathroom with a towel slung over his back. He closed the door behind him and slung his towel over the curtain ring and pushed the curtains aside.

He stopped short a moment later.

"Do you mind?" An irritated, feminine voice reached Ichigo's ears.

Rukia was in the bathtub, filling a bucket with water from the faucet.

"What are you doin' in here, Shinigami?"

Rukia scoffed at him. "I told, you my name is Rukia!" She paused and turned off the faucet. "And I'm filling a bucket of water from this well."

A vein popped out on Ichigo's forehead as he clenched his fist. Very, very quietly, he took the water that Rukia had collected and dumped it onto the white porcelain surface. Very quietly and very angrily, he spoke.

"Don't they have bathtubs where you come from, _Shinigami_?"

"Of course we do! But those are wooden and have to be filled with boiling water first."

"This, is not a well. This, is a bathtub. Do you understand?" Ichigo's voice deepened into something that would have been frightening had he not looked exhausted and weak.

"But if you try to fill it, all the water goes down the grate-thing!" Rukia almost yelled, and her voice was indignant.

Not speaking, Ichigo quickly plugged the drain with a push of his fingers. He demonstrated this to the confused Shinigami several times, until realization finally dawned on her features.

"Oh... I see now." She said at last, her face filled with awe.

"Now get out, I need to shower." Ichigo didn't wait for a response, he grabbed Rukia by the shihakusho and lifted her up one-handed.

"I'm not a toy! Let me go!"

"You're small enough to _be_ a toy, midget. Now get out!" Ichigo shoved the door open and tossed Rukia out, ignoring her whining and violent thrashing.

He breathed a sigh of relief once Rukia was gone. He showered quickly, not quite doing much but letting cold water rouse him from his slumber. He dried off quickly, and he dressed quickly. Really, today called for it. School wasn't for another two days, so he at least had a bit of time to talk to the Shinigami.

_We've sure got a lot to talk about, don't we. Reiatsu control, hollow-hunting, Quincies, and whether or not I should be worried about my family._

Ichigo stepped out of his room, dressed in jeans and a long-sleeved, tight black shirt, despite the heat. Instead of shorts and a t-shirt, he was dressed in order to hide his wounds until they healed, as well as the two Bangles slung on his wrists. He walked down the stairs and found that the house was completely empty except for Rukia.

"Hey, Midget." Ichigo called as he reached the kitchen.

"It's Rukia!" She yelled back.

Ichigo only grunted in response, and sat down next to the black-haired Shinigami, who was trying to operate a TV remote.'

The Shinigami refused to look him in the eye, instead working at the remote instead.

"So, Rukia, I have some things to ask ya."

"What if I don't answer?" She responded, still not looking him in the eye.

"Then I'll just keep on askin'." Ichigo paused for a moment. "Do you know what I am?"

"A Quincy. But I won't report you to my captain, even though I should. You saved my life, after all."

Inwardly of course, Ichigo, breathed a sigh of relief. Then he asked his next question. "Do you know the basics of reiryoku control?"

Rukia scoffed at him. "Of course, are you saying that you _don't_? You're a Quincy, isn't that your specialty?"

"Well, yes, actually, but ya see, I'm different. Unlike most Quincies, my reiryoku level is just a _touch_ bit higher than the average spiritually aware human. My friend once told me it's about equal to a fourth seat. No one, not even his father- Who is also a Quincy- has enough energy to teach me. So, I'm asking you."

"I don't have to train you. You saved my life from the hollows, I save your life from the Shinigami. We're even."

_Dammit! I should've known this would happen... I wish I had a contingency... Wait, I know!_

In his most suave, non-perverted voice, he bargained with Rukia as best as he could. "Well, you need a place to stay, don't you? What if, in return for basic training, I let you stay here?"

Rukia almost laughed, but suppressed it. "What's to stop you from looking at me in my sleep, or doing _other_ perverted things to me?" Rukia's eyes glinted with danger.

"Look at you! Ha, that's rich. Who'd wanna look at you, you look like a guy!" Ichigo paused for a moment as he laughed out loud. "And I'm sorry, but I don't swing that way." Ichigo said, looking completely straight-faced.

Rukia's face grew bright red, and her fists clenched. She thought about punching the bright-haired teen, but realized she was too close to do any real damage. So, she kicked him instead. She lashed out at the teen with her right leg, moving at speeds that any other human might have had trouble tracking.

Ichigo blocked the strike with both his arms, but found that the force behind the hit was more than he expected. His defenses slipped, and Rukia whipped her fist into his chin. She pulled her hand back just as fast, clasping it with her other.

"Ow..." Rukia groaned as she clutched her hand. "Why is your stupid chin so hard?"

"My friend always says I have a thick skull!" Ichigo proclaimed, sounding much more cheerful than he should have.

Snapping back to attention, Rukia sat up straight as she spoke. "I accept your offer." She said, unaware that the two had switched subjects.

"Huh?"

"You asked for basic reiryoku training in exchange for staying here. I accept." Rukia's voice was even and rigid, the very embodiment of noble.

Ichigo hated it.

"Okay, but you gotta get that stick out of your ass. I have a rich friend who used to talk just like you."

Rukia's eye twitched in annoyance. She thought about hitting the infuriating boy again, but then she thought of something _much_ more devious.

"Shut up,_ Strawberry_!"

Ichigo clenched his fists. Rukia laughed.

_Just the effect I was hoping for!_ Rukia's mind sang as Ichigo's eye twitched uncontrollably.

"You might wanna get that twitching problem fixed,_ Strawberry_." She intoned musically, emphasizing the word strawberry.

"Yeah, whatever _Midget_, when'll we start training?"

"Right now. Release your reiatsu."

"Huh?" Realization dawned a minute later. "Wait, Rukia, no! What if someone gets hurt by it!?" Ichigo panicked, remembering how Uryu had collapsed in pain the last time he released it.

"Deflate your head, Strawberry, I doubt you have enough power to injure a Shinigami with your-"

Ichigo had released his power the second she began to sound pompous, if only to spite her. Rukia collapsed to her knees, shaking in pain and clutching at her modest chest. Pain shot through her body as she struggled to pull oxygen in. A weight was on her, and it was rising steadily.

Pressure rose and fell with dangerous fluctuations, at certain times it was as strong as the average captain, other times about as weak as an unseated Shinigami. The weight was... Different, from most reiatsu signatures. In contrast to the blunt, heavy weight that her captain had, this was more jagged, blacker, and altogether more _evil_. It was odd, coming from a human.

Finally, Ichigo reigned his power in slightly, only able to pull back half of what he released. The rest would fade back into his body in due time. But for now, it wouldn't respond to his frantic pulling.

Rukia caught her breath and held onto it, panting as she spoke. "Fourth seat... My ass... That's easily as strong as a Lieutenant!" Rukia exclaimed, both amazed and irritated. "How did you get so strong so quickly, Strawberry, you're too young to have been training for more than a few years!"

"Six, actually. And I don't know, Uryu always said that-" Ichigo paused once he realized he had just said the name of his Quincy friend. "My friend always said that I have an unusual growth rate, even for the average human." Ichigo continued, hoping she hadn't caught the name.

"Okay, then. What made you want to learn reiatsu control, I mean, you're already suppressing at least eighty percent of your power as is."

"Well sure, but once I start fighting, my concentration breaks. My reiatsu starts goin' crazy, and sometimes it gets the better of me..."

"What do you mean?" Rukia asked, now completely serious.

"Well, yesterday, just a few hours before you dropped in, I tried to use this attack I perfected. Too much energy got moved around at once, I guess, and it stopped my heart. The recoil of the attack broke my arm, but it also restarted my body, so I got really lucky."

Rukia could only guess as to just _what_ attack he used, and why it was strong enough to technically kill him.

"That's... That's impossible! How could you have killed yourself like that, I mean, how could your own power kill you, that's... Impossible..." She repeated, unsure of things. Yet, the Quincy in front of her was looking deadly serious.

"I don't know either." He admitted, completely truthful.

Honestly, Rukia was starting to regret ever agreeing to train him. He was stronger than her in all fronts, so what could she do? Besides, she didn't think that his lack of control could be that serious.

She sighed openly.

"Alright then, Strawberry. We'd best get started..."

Ichigo would come to regret this decision, too.

* * *

><p>"Why am I doing this again, Midget?" Ichigo shouted as he ran down the block.<p>

"To exhaust your energy, of course!" Rukia called back, looking nice and cozy on a rooftop while she watched Ichigo run around the block.

She had told him that he'd be running, non-stop, for the whole weekend. She told him to tap into his reiryoku as much as possible, and drain it as much as he could. That way she knew just how much training he needed, and make it easier for said training to commence. Killing two birds with one stone, except Ichigo was the stone.

And Ichigo liked birds.

"This is stupid!" He called indignantly to Rukia, who was wearing a Gigai.

"You're stupid!" She called back, just as indignantly.

This was the third hour, and although Ichigo wasn't tired, he could do without all the people staring at him and his ceaseless running. After today, people would think he was crazy.

_Stupid Midget!_

He regretted this very much, but he pushed on anyway. He was the one who asked first, anyway.

Two days passed, and although Ichigo had been running around the block the entire time, Rukia had slept (in his closet0, bought ice cream (with his money) and eaten dinner (with his family). Really, it was infuriating. Rukia had convinced the family that she was a friend of Ichigo's and would be staying for a couple months. Ichigo's dad had broken down and started crying tears of joy, and screaming insane things at the poor woman who was his wife. Ichigo's sisters seemed happy, although one of them had an undercurrent of... Jealousy?... In her voice, though she hid it well. Ichigo's mother seemed okay with it, although Rukia could swear that she was watching her with hawk's eyes. All in all, they were an odd family.

All the while, Ichigo had wished a thousand different deaths on the infuriating Midget. Those two days came and went, but Ichigo could swear he had only used about a third of his power. The very thought that all this effort was in vain was... Irritating, to say the least.

Rukia sat on the rooftops, bored, as she waited. Two days had passed, and Ichigo didn't even seem winded. If things went on like this, he would need to go the entire weak to drain him down. It was unacceptable, really, but she had no choice. With a flit of s_hunpo_, she vanished and reappeared at the Urahara Shop, clutching a brick of Japanese yen. It was Ichigo's money, of course, hidden in the back of the closet, but he wouldn't mind.

She was training him, after all.

Rukia opened the shop's sliding doors and stepped inside, not quite knowing what to expect. It had been over twenty-two years since she had been here. Back then, Kaien was alive...

Shaking the thought from her head, she called out for Kisuke.

"Urahara-san, where are you?" She put her hands to her lips and called again, now getting impatient. "Urahara, get over here!"

After about three or four yells, he appeared. A paper fan was covering his mouth as he yawned, and he looked as disheveled as ever.

"Ah, hello Kuchiki-san, is there something you need?"

"Yes. I need you to get Ichigo Kurosaki a week of leave from his academy." She said matter-of-factly.

Well, this was a new development. Long ago, Kisuke had planned a scenario for Ichigo Kurosaki, one that revolved around using Rukia to break down the Hogyoku with a specially made Gigai, without her knowledge, of course. Then he had shattered those plans by becoming a Quincy. Now, he had completely forgotten about Rukia and what to do with her...

...And he was spacing out again. Rukia had waved a hand in his face to make sure he was paying attention, looking one part concerned, but three parts irritated.

"Of course! I'll just need an 'express delivery fee', you know how it is." Kisuke grinned when Rukia handed him a brick of money, grumbling as she did.

"I'll make the necessary arrangements right now!"

Rukia didn't know why, or how she could do so much for one stupid Strawberry.

* * *

><p><em>Dammit, Ichigo. How far have you fallen?<em> Uryu thought as he watched his 'friend' run around the block in what he assumed was training.

"Saving a Shinigami's life... Giving out your identity to a Shinigami... And now you're training under a Shinigami... I thought I knew you, Kurosaki." At the moment, Uryu felt hurt and angry, but he also felt relieved.

Ichigo Kurosaki was different. He was like a hybrid of Hollows, Quincies, and Shinigami put into human form. When he described a new attack or his variation on a Quincy technique, Uryu couldn't help but be reminded of Kido or Hoho. When he fought in battle, his instincts were rough and dangerous, not at all like any other human he had known. His fighting style was unrefined, but vicious and deadly... He fought like a hollow. Hell, even the boy's bow was like a zanpakuto! Yet, underneath it all, he was a Quincy, but a very different Quincy indeed.

So, when Ichigo had betrayed him, he was surprised and angry... But also, in a sadistic way, relieved. The boy was far too forgiving of the Shinigami, from the massacre of the Quincy to the recent death of their Sensei, it was too much to simply _forgive_, as Kurosaki had done. As such, he elected that two possibilities existed: Sway Kurosaki to his side; make him realize that Shinigami were evil, and have him retake his place as a true Quincy... Or, he could kill him.

_But isn't there a third choice, Uryu?_ The voice of his grandfather filled his head, and Uryu tried his best to shake it off.

He had to admit, there was a kind of sense in what Kurosaki said. Part of him wanted to just believe in him, to see what the other side had to offer, but his pride, his Quincy Pride, was telling him otherwise.

_Kurosaki, you better have a damn good excuse for this... You were my friend, dammit!_

Just as soon as the thought was out of his head, his hollow alarm sounded. Uryu formed his bow and dashed off as soon as possible, fully prepared to beat the Shinigami to the punch. He was only marginally satisfied when he noticed the Shinigami vanish a few seconds after him.

He arrived at the Karakura Industrial Park, near an old warehouse. Factories were churning smoke in the distance and workers were milling about. It didn't help that the hollow had appeared right in the center of this mess, and it certainly didn't help that Uryu was perfectly visible to them. So he ran. He lured the hollow away, making as much noise as he did.

The workers stopped to look at the shouting, running boy. They thought he was crazy, if only for a moment, then got back to work. No use wasting time on crazies, was there?

Uryu had lured the hollow away to an unpopulated stretch of slag and sand. This stretch of toxic desert was a byproduct of the intense manufacturing going on here. Uryu's bow was up, and three arrows were homing in a moment later, and the hollow stood no chance. The first shot ripped it's shoulder open, the second took out an eye, and the third split it's stomach open.

The hollow roared in agony and dropped to the ground, gravely injured. Uryu prepared to deal the finishing blow. It didn't take long for the Shinigami to drop in after that, kicking Uryu's hand and throwing off his aim. His arrow went wide and slammed into a sand dune instead, the Shinigami finished the hollow off.

Uryu grunted and adjusted his glasses a bit, then spoke to the Shinigami as best as he could without his voice rising in anger. "Are you the one who's training Kurosaki?"

Rukia only grinned sheepishly, sheathing her zanpakuto. "Stupid Strawberry, it's so boring watching him run."

The Quincy didn't know what to make of that, it was just plain odd.

"You know, you're a Shinigami. I'm a Quincy, we're enemies." Uryu said in his most intimidating voice.

"Ichigo doesn't think so. He says that his Sensei always wanted Shinigami and Quincies to cooperate."

That struck a nerve with Uryu, and he had to suppress the urge to blast off the Shinigami's head. Instead, he focused on more productive things, like asking how she came across Ichigo in the first place. He already knew, of course, he had been watching the whole thing, but he just wanted to know if she was a liar or not.

"Eh, I got attacked by a couple hollows. Ichigo saved me, actually." Rukia spoke with grudging tones, as if she didn't want to admit it. "Stupid Strawberry even gave me medical treatment."

Now there was a question if he ever heard one. Could Shinigami even get surgery? It seemed like an impossibility, but he had witnessed this one crash into buildings before. If material objects could affect them, then emergency surgery probably could too. Of course, it was plain odd that she didn't use her healing Kido in the first place.

"Why didn't you use Kido to close your wounds?" Uryu asked, genuinely curious.

"Had no reiryoku left, damned hollows beat it out of me."

That satisfied Uryu's curiosity. It also told him that now was a good time to leave, workers had heard the commotion and were rushing over. It just wouldn't do if they saw him talking with thin air. Without so much as a "goodbye", he vanished with _hirenkyaku_, and reappeared at his family estate. It didn't take long for Rukia to leave as well, going back to the block where Ichigo was running.

For Ichigo, the seven days he spent running were pure hell. Food and water were at a minimum, as Rukia preferred sun-bathing on the rooftop, rather than watching him or feeding him. Once a day, she sprayed his face with a hose in order to keep him hydrated. On the same side of the coin, after the hose-spraying, she'd throw apple slices at his face and tell him to eat them. All of this happened while he was running and hyper-ventilating.

It was grueling torture, and by the end of that seven days, his reiryoku was so depleted that he could hardly even manifest his bow, let alone fight with it. So, from there, Rukia worked as well as she possible. She made him do petty exercises to keep his reiryoku levels down more. She told him to channel what little energy he had left to his chest, and let it pool there.

_"In every living thing, as long as it has a soul, there is a soul-sleep located at the center of your chest. Whether or not you are spiritually aware, it generates reiryoku, usually just enough to sustain the soul. Channel your reiryoku there, and keep it there. Over time, your body will adapt to the pressure being put on it, but for now, do not release that energy for a week."_

Of course, Rukia had been doing something else- Reading mangas, watching her damned anime, or drawing her idiotic Chappy all over the walls and paper while she taught him. Ichigo thought it was more than irritating, but she was a decent teacher. He had suppressed his energy a bit further now, and he could even hold it down for a while when they sparred.

His reiryoku always attempted to spill out, however, and sometimes that halted the progress of training. It was as if his wellspring of power was being constantly refilled by a river, and all he could do was empty that wellspring with a bucket.

Yet, after about two weeks of continuous training, he began to feel the pressure in his chest fade away. His inner organs, instead of fighting against all the extra energy, took it in and strengthened his core. His heart was three times as efficient, his stomach twice as fast, and his intestines as hard as metal, but flexible as leather. His innards in general were much more efficient, lending him an accelerated growth rate and an expanded life-span of at least sixty years.

What's more, after telling his dad to be on standby with defibrillators, he had attempted that orb-attack once more. Now that he had a firm hold on his reiatsu, the output was much more controlled, and more precise. He could choose between a beam of energy, a blast of power, or a simple shockwave to impact against a target.

His bow, while still white-hot and usable as a blade, also lost that chaotic swirling of power that tended to burn his own hand, making it possible to actually use the bow for what it was- A bow, of course. Naturally, a better hold on his own power lent way to the shaping of _other_ powers. He eventually began to substitute reiryoku for reishi, and even use his reiatsu as a weapon. He learned how to shape weapons that, while dangerous to the wielder with their incredible heat output, dealt massive damage to targets.

Ichigo felt reborn, he felt stronger than ever. Rukia was to blame, of course, but he would never tell her that. His training had been hellish, seven days of continuous running and eternal struggle, and the two weeks he spent with that painful pressure splitting his insides apart would break most people, but right now, he felt like a god.

School would start in a few days, so Ichigo rested. He had to admit, this was the best sleep he had gotten in years, something he had never thought possible after Soken's death.

Ichigo awoke feeling even stronger than yesterday, a likely result of his reserves restoring themselves. He had beaten the alarm clock by a half hour, he noticed as he got out of bed. He showered, he dressed, he ate, and then he went outside. The air, he noticed, never tasted better.

* * *

><p>For once, Ichigo was dressed in the standard Quincy garb. A bright white, somewhat tight, western coat and pants, and a halter to go over it. A five-pointed pentacle adorned the back of his coat, but that was all the embellishment he needed. The rest of the uniform was a spartan white with a light blue trim. In his hands, Ichigo had formed his signature bow with his right, and a reishi blade with his left.<p>

The heat of the blade made his left hand burn, and likely would have melted his bones if seventy percent of it wasn't his own reiryoku. His bow, on the other hand, was only slightly warm, and even that heat was abated by the breeze around him. He had tracked the hollow here, Rukia not far behind him.

The creature was about as strong as a Gillian, and as big as one too, but not quite the same. Perhaps it was one of those Gillians that retained their consciousness?

He came to see it, walking out of a crack in the sky, accompanied by countless minions. The Gillian-like hollow was huge and dog-like, with four plated legs. Yet, it's carapace and armored plating was that of an insect's, and it's face was a cross between a mosquito and a dog's snout. Altogether, it was adequate nightmare fuel.

"Go take the little ones, I'll weaken the big guy!" Ichigo shouted to Rukia while they were both airborne.

"Understood, and don't kill him, remember!"

Ichigo and Rukia had come to an agreement, per Ichigo's request. He would weaken hollows, and save the lives in immediate danger, but he wouldn't kill them- He'd let Rukia do that. It was just like Soken had once envisioned, Shinigami and Quincy working in tandem.

Ichigo stayed in the air, Rukia fell to the ground , her fall cushioned by reiryoku. The orange-haired Quincy looked the Menos in the eye, and charged. The dog-menos opened it's jaws and revealed hundreds of vicious-looking fangs, each one capable of beheading a person. The fangs were easily as big as the average person's head, but much, much more intimidating. These fangs launched out of the dog-menos' mouth like missiles, sending a spray of blood into the creature's mouth as they went.

Ichigo flew towards the hollow, accelerated by _hirenkyaku_, and twice as deadly for it. He split the first fang-missile in half with his reishi blade, only for it to shatter into several dozen shards of bone-shrapnel, each piece ripping into Ichigo's left arm.

With a cry of pain, Ichigo dropped down somewhat and charged ahead, his left arm hanging almost limp by his side. Using _Ransōtengai, _he willed his arm to move and swung his blade in a wide arc.

"Shatter." Ichigo murmured.

A half-moment later, the reishi blade split into three shards of energy, each one hurdling towards the dog-menos with amazing speed. The dog-menos opened it's jaws once more, and sent a spray of deadly fangs hurtling toward Ichigo and and Rukia. Ichigo formed a large, thick web of reishi with his left hand, and caught each fang in it's intricate patterns. He launched back each fang toward the hollow, each one finding it's mark on the hollow's head.

He manifested a bushel of arrows in his left hand, and loaded his bow. Still mid-air, he fired a dozen of shots before either the hollow or the Shinigami below could blink, each one crashing with the force of a shotgun blast into the creature's skull. Before he could fire again, however, the hollow swiped him out of the air with it's armored leg.

Ichigo crashed into the ground, his fall only marginally padded with reiatsu. He got up, and dodged out of the way when the dog-menos stomped on the crater. He formed another reishi blade and leaped into the air, as fast as he could. The hollow opened it's jaws again, and another volley of fangs were lobbed at him.

"Shatter." He murmured once more and swung his blade. Hundreds of shards were created from that blade, and each sliver of reishi pushed back against the fangs. The reishi shards fought back, eventually causing them to fall to the ground, inert and useless.

Ichigo charged ahead once more, this time flying under the hollow's jaws. He slipped under it's defenses and flew upward, his blade-bow swinging wildly. He severed the muscles that held the jaw in place, and the dog-menos' jaw fell slack.

Ichigo quickly formed an orb of power in his left hand, and sent an explosion of energy flying up through the roof of the hollow's mouth, destroying the hollow's lower jaw and incinerating it's upper fangs.

Immediately, hollows realized that their master was in danger, and quickly swarmed the offending Quincy. A minion-hollow quickly attacked Ichigo, striking from behind and nearly severing his spinal cord. He fell from the sky and and hurtled toward the ground, leaving a trail of blue fire as he fell. Before he hit the ground, he cushioned the fall with a blast from his left hand, generating a big enough shockwave to bounce him onto his feet.

Another blue blade was in his hand, and he went to meet with the throngs of minion-hollow's that attacked him. He cut one in half immediately, not killing it, but crippling it. He severed the legs of another, and the arms of a third. Soon enough, he left a trail of blood and dying hollows behind him, all of which were promptly finished off by Rukia.

The dog-menos roared in pain, and swiped at Ichigo. The Quincy merely dodged the blow, and shattered his reishi blade, sending a paper-thin crescent of blue energy flying. The dog-menos' front legs were severed instantly, and it fell to the ground.

A shower of blood christened the land, and the dog-menos screamed in agony. The sound was deafening and painful, almost saddening to hear.

"Rukia! Kill it now!" Ichigo screamed amidst the din, hoping against hope that she heard it.

She did.

The dog-menos' head was severed moments later, and Rukia walked away as the massive hollow disintegrated. Panting and bleeding she fell to her knees. Throngs of the remaining lesser hollows moved in for the kill. Ichigo released a torrent of reiatsu at once, instantly vaporizing them. This simplistic attack didn't kill them, but scattered their essence and forced them to reform back in Hueco Mundo.

"You okay, Midget?"

Rukia nodded, using her zanpakuto as a crutch as she got to her feet.

"'s not my blood, I'll live." She said as she pointed to the blood splatters on her uniform.

"I'll admit, that big guy did a number on my arm and leg, but I'll live." Ichigo's weapons dissipated, and he staggered off.

"Today was your first fight with a proper hold on your energy. How do you feel?" Rukia asked, genuinely concerned.

"Good, actually. It's kind of hard to get my reiryoku back into my chest when I release it, but at least I can manage it."

"That's good, that's good. Any less would be an insult to both you and me." After a slight pause, she added, "I did teach you, after all."

Ichigo chuckled. "That you did, Rukia. That you did."

They reached the clinic a short while later. Ichigo let Rukia shower while he cleaned off his Quincy garb with the hose. He could probably give it a proper wash later. Personally speaking, Ichigo didn't quite mind the blood anymore. If he walked away with blood on his uniform, he treated it the same way he would any other strain. If he walked away with _his_ blood on his uniform, he treated it like a testament to his fight.

He showered awhile after that, and ate dinner. Yuzu and Karin were at their respective friends' houses, and Goat Face and Mom were at a restaurant, leaving Ichigo and Rukia alone in the house.

"I met your friend the other day, Strawberry." Rukia said over a bowl of ramen.

Ichigo paused mid-chew as he contemplated the effects of this.

_Eh, Rukia wouldn't betray Uryu like that._

The thought abated his worries, and he resumed eating shortly after.

"Oh did you? Did he treat you like dirt?" Ichigo asked noncommittally.

"Yeah, he did. Some friend you got there."

"Eh, he's just like that because you're a Shinigami. Bastard's always got a grudge of some sort. I think he'd die if he didn't have enough hate in him, or something."

"That... Doesn't sound healthy. Have you ever tried talking to him about it?"

"Yeah, but he always babbles on about 'the pride of the Quincy' or something like that. Personally I don't care so much. My powers are great and all, but I've never cared much for my past, and my heritage is no exception."

Rukia didn't have anything to say about that. She finished her food , put her bowl in the sink, and walked off.

"I'll be in your closet!" She called back to Ichigo.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever Midget!" He called back.

Despite only knowing each other for a relatively short month, the two had become friends like no other. Ichigo's stubborn, no-nonsense personality was flecked with it's own brand of charisma, and that often gravitated followers when he need it to.

Rukia appealed to Ichigo because she wasn't weak or flustered like most of the other girls he knew, he could be himself around her and she wouldn't start cowering in fear. Ichigo appealed to Rukia because he was a lot like her old mentor, stubborn, hard-headed, and full of vitality- Except where Ichigo was concerned, he seemed to take it to a whole new level.

Besides, at the end of the day, Rukia had saved Ichigo's life by teaching him how to control his reiatsu, and in extension, allow him to use one of his most powerful techniques without killing himself. Ichigo had saved Rukia's directly, from the first two hollows that dared to attack her, as well as the more recent encounter with the Menos and his it's minions.

It was nice to have allies that could be trusted- They had become somewhat of a commodity on Ichigo's end. His scowling, hard-ass reputation stopped people from approaching him, and before this month, Uryu had really been his only friend.

With a sigh, Ichigo snapped himself out of his sentimental thoughts and headed upstairs. He reached his bedroom and pushed the door open. Rukia was in the closet, reading another one of her Chappy Mangas. The Quincy turned the lights out and went to sleep in his clothing, bone tired after the entire day's events.

Sleep came quickly for the young Quincy, and without the strange pull of his own energy to keep him up, the dreams and nightmares were abated. He slept in oblivion for nine hours, and it was the second most refreshing rest in his lifetime.

* * *

><p>Ichigo awoke to a text message. After reading it three times, he still didn't quite understand what it said.<p>

_They know._ The message read. The user ID was anonymous.

"They know, huh..." Ichigo said aloud, slowly pondering the thought.

* * *

><p>Miles away, a figure in black closed his cell phone.<p>

* * *

><p><strong>So, I know that I'm really downplaying Masaki and the schoolmates, but I really don't care much about them. Masaki was never really fleshed out in the anime, and I'm awful at reading manga, so I have nothing to go on. Oh, and if anyone's wondering, Orihime will not have powers. Nor will Chad, or anyone else really, I always thought that their abilities were a little odd.<strong>

**I could use a beta, if anyone cares. I never bother editing my work until _after_ it's posted. A bad habit, I know, but it's just a quirk of mine, I guess.**


	6. Capture

**Chapter 5**

**Capture**

* * *

><p><strong>AN**

**I am SO sorry for the late update. Internet troubles were preventing me from doing any uploading of any sort, and I had a fair bit of Writer's Block to boot. But, excuses aside, I want to clear up a few things:**

**A) The Wandenreicht isn't a thing anymore. At the very least, they _might_ be introduced later in, but for all intents and purposes, they don't exist. Oh, and some of the powers introduced in their arc will be taken out or modified.**

**B) Urahara is a shady character, so Ichigo doesn't talk to him much. He won't mention his strange abilities, his training, or anything else to him, simply because of a lack of trust.**

**Hope that clears things up, and remember to ask questions if you're confused. I know how convoluted things can get when I get into my writing.**

* * *

><p><em>Seireitei, Shinigami Research and Development Sector, five hours ago.<em>

"Kurotsuchi-sama. Akon has brought a report on the Quincy." The toneless, emotionless voice of Nemu filled the empty dark room.

"Give it here, Nemu!" Mayuri grabbed the report and skimmed over it quickly. "Two Bangles, lieutenant-level strength, and deep knowledge of almost every known Quincy technique..." The scientist muttered to himself.

"Orders, Kurotsuchi-sama?" Nemu asked politely.

"Shut up you trash!" The captain yelled back as he looked over the report.

_...Seems to have traces of hollow reiatsu in his soul..._ Mayuri's eyes glowed with joy. He cackled violently as he reread the report.

"I said I was finished with Quincies, but this is too good to pass up!" Mayuri instantly felt a burst of rare joy rocket through him. Hollow reiatsu was supposedly poisonous to Quincies, and it was very, very strange that this Ichigo character could survive having even a trace of it. "Nemu, assembled a collection team, and prepare to bring the Quincy in."

"How many should I take, Mayuri-sama?"

Mayuri's eye twitched angrily. The captain immediately pulled a small knife from his shihakusho and threw it into his lieutenant's arm. "You are never to call me by my given name, you worthless trash."

"I'm sorry, Kurotsuchi-sama." Nemu pulled the knife from her arm and placed it gingerly in her pocket. "How many would you like to be on the retrieval team?" She asked again, unfazed by the swelling pain in his arm.

"Seven. Two of our own, and five combatants from the Fifth."

"As you command, Kurotsuchi-sama." Nemu walked away at a brisk pace, leaving the deranged scientist alone in his dark chamber.

A wide, gleeful, and _terrifying_ grin appeared on the Shinigami's face.

"I promise you this, Quincy boy, I will learn _every_ one of your secrets." Mayuri chuckled to himself as his hand unconsciously gripped his zanpakuto. "And if I have to destroy your body to do it... Then it's all the better."

So engrossed in his mutterings, Mayuri didn't notice the black cat with the glowing yellow eyes, even in the intense darkness of his laboratory.

_Karakura Town, present day_

The senkaimon opened in the sky. Bright white light filled the air around them, seeming to reflect off the low-flying clouds around them.

"Fog, huh. I hate fog." The deep voice of a Shinigami rang through the dark.

"Quit complaining. Let's go, I want to find that Quincy bastard as soon as possible."

"Quiet down. Aizen-Taichou wanted him brought in alive as soon as possible, let's get moving." A woman spoke, instantly calming the other, rowdier Shinigami.

"Understood, Hinamori-Fukutaicho." The voices of the other Shinigami shouted in unison.

Immediately after, the five combatants spread out to search the town.

Ichigo sensed their reiatsu signatures, even in school, many miles away. This morning, he had received an ominous message, and now five Shinigami had shown up. It was one hell of a coincidence, Ichigo thought as his hands absently twirled his Bangle about. School would end in a few minutes, so he could wait. Ms. Ochi was droning about something unimportant, something that sounded very _boring._

The bell rang a moment later, and the class hurried out the door. Ichigo stopped walking for a moment and ambled closer to Uryu.

"Uryu, do you sense the Shinigami?" He asked quietly, making sure no one could hear.

For the first time in the entire week, Uryu responded to him.

"Yes. What are you going to do about it?" The Quincy spoke with an unusual amount of venom in his voice.

"Talk to em'. I don't know what they're here for, or if they're trying to take Rukia away, but I need information. If they _are_ trying to take her away, I kick their asses."

Uryu stopped his stride entirely. What followed next was said with no hatred at all, in fact, it sounded almost relieved.

"Then I want to be there too. I haven't fought a Shinigami before, and I still have yet to avenge Sensei's death."

Ichigo smiled. "That's m'boy, there's just one thing I need you to do." Ichigo paused as he walked out the door. "Get that damned stick outta your ass." Ichigo vanished with a burst of _hirenkyaku_ a moment later.

Uryu followed just a moment later, feeling a multitude of emotions. Relief, that his only friend and ally hadn't betrayed him. Anger, for believing that Ichigo, with his steadfast loyalty and stubborn pride, would ever betray him. And finally, a malevolent sense of satisfaction.

Sensei might not like it much, but Uryu was going to like the royal beat-down he'd give his Shinigami enemies.

"We've got a lock on two reiatsu signatures, closing in fast. It looks like they're moving to attack!" A twelfth division scientist shouted to the fifth division lieutenant.

"Got it." Momo immediately pulled out her denreishinki. "All squad members, to me. Two Quincies are headed here fast!"

Almost immediately after she said it, two blurs of white and blue had pressed against her. Ichigo slammed her into a nearby tree, and Uryu had knocked out the two twelfth division scientists with deadly precision. Ichigo formed his bow a half-second later, and was already flying toward his enemy.

Momo got to her feet and struck blindly, only barely parrying Ichigo's strike. She pulled back a moment after, and forced reiryoku into her blade. Her enemy was strong, easily as strong as even the strongest of lieutenants. It certainly wasn't helpful that her strength was capped to twenty percent at the moment.

The two were stuck in a deadlock, with their two respective blades locked together. Ichigo pushed against the hard steel, and gradually gained ground.

"Why are you here!?" The Quincy yelled as he pushed against her blade.

"I can't tell you that, Quincy!" She yelled back.

"Dammit, why not?!" Ichigo pushed harder, and Momo's feet were dug into the ground.

"I JUST CAN'T" Momo shouted balefully, even as Ichigo kicked her into the air.

Momo hit the ground with a thud, and her attacker was on her in an instant. Ichigo formed a bushel of arrows in his right hand, and immediately loaded his bow.

Ichigo released a volley of arrows, his bow sending them all out with deadly precision. Momo felt one dig into her arm, and another into her stomach. Heat and pressure slammed into her, strike after strike, bringing her to her knees. The Quincy was merciless, hammering her with a storm of bluish-white arrows that _never seemed to end._

Agony gripped her mind, and she screamed in pain. Ichigo grimaced at the sound, and almost wished he could look away from the pain he was causing her. He truly _had_ meant to talk to her, he really did, but something inside him had snapped when she screamed at him. His temper had exploded, and with it, his concentration.

"Hinamori-Fukutaicho!" The simultaneous shouts of her men roused the lieutenant to consciousness.

A blade flashed across Ichigo's back, cutting deep and dropping him to his knees. Just as he fell, a blade flew above his head, swinging at the spot his neck had been just a moment ago. A zanpakuto was sent flying towards his foot just a half-moment later, and Ichigo was helpless to stop it.

White pain flashed across his vision, and Ichigo groaned in pain as his foot was tethered to the ground by a Shinigami's asauchi. The Shinigami above him looked at him with cold, furious eyes. All of them looked as if they wanted him more than dead.

Ichigo dissipated his bow, and formed a sphere of energy in it's place. He looked up at the Shinigami holding him captive, and immediately released a blast of condensed reiryoku directly under him. The earth underneath him exploded, and the Shinigami around him were engulfed in blue fire. Ichigo was left unharmed, even as the torrential flames licked at his body, and even as the Shinigami around him were screaming in agony.

The Quincy emerged from the flames, his clothing charred but his flesh undamaged, and approached the wounded lieutenant.

"Why are you here?" Ichigo asked amicably. The Quincy's voice sounded as calm and nonchalant as it would if he were simply asking for the time. Yet, underneath that tone, was a strong undercurrent of hatred and venom that Momo would have found difficult to miss.

"P-please, I can't. I just can't!" The Shinigami shouted as she reached for her zanpakuto.

Ichigo immediately kicked her blade away several meters, and grabbed her by the neck of her shihakusho. With an intimidating snarl, he asked in an aggressive voice.

"Are you here to arrest Rukia Kuchiki?"

Momo's eyes widened as she realized something.

"No, we aren't here for Rukia."

Ichigo sighed in relief, and he dropped Momo to the ground. He scratched the back of his head sheepishly, and all the anger and irrational fear flowed out of him.

"Jeez, I'm sorry for hurting you guys so bad. I just panicked, y'know? Rukia's my friend, and I thought you were here to take her away, and I guess I snapped." Ichigo had a guilty grin on his face. A grin that seemed to say "Sorry, I didn't know." And not "Sorry I nearly killed you and your friends."

"You humans are so weird." Momo said to herself, but Ichigo caught it all the same.

"Yeah, I guess we are weird. You can go home now, I think Uryu left your scientist friends ali-" Sharp pain exploded in Ichigo's back, and pierced through his stomach.

The Quincy looked down, and saw a bloodied, shining piece of steel sticking from his stomach. Blood spewed from the wound, and from Ichigo's mouth. The Quincy looked back to face the Shinigami who stabbed him- A rugged, older looking male who seemed as angry as he did murderous. The Shinigami's zanpakuto had been shoved through his back, all the way up to the hilt.

"You bastard." Ichigo muttered angrily.

Then, the world exploded.

Uryu heard a huge blast of reiatsu, a sound loud enough to rival a bomb-blast. Immediately, he darted from his spot to move in on it, leaving a bloodied and beaten scientist behind. At breakneck speeds, Uryu dashed toward the sound of the explosion as fast as he possibly could. Along the way, he spotted a familiar blur of black and white rushing towards the same spot.

Time seemed to slow around Uryu, and as he reached for his bow, he found his progress unhampered. Adrenaline coursed through his veins and left him feeling superhuman. Uryu had his bowstring pulled back and an arrow loaded, when he noticed who the Shinigami was.

Rukia.

Uryu dissipated his bow and dashed ahead, appearing at the sound of the explosion in record time. The site was a mess. Blood and charred bodies were everywhere, a huge crater was sending plumes of smoke into the air, and a huge gash in the earth was spotted. Trees and rocks were cut cleanly in the gash's wake, almost as if something had blasted them apart.

Splattered against a cliff face that had been carved open, was the flattened body of a Shinigami. His face was etched with terror, and his eyes were wide with it. Four other bodies were there too, slumped on the ground or against trees and rocks. All were blood splattered and wounded, but none were as grisly as the corpse splattered against the cliff.

"R-Rukia?" A faint, dusty voice was heard.

"Hinamori-Fukutaicho?!" Rukia immediately rushed to the Shinigami's side, fear in her eyes.

Momo was looking markedly better than the corpses around her, but that wasn't saying much. Burn wounds, as well as innumerable injuries were on her, and no part of her was unscathed. She seemed to be covered in angry red burns, almost like she had suffered the back-blast of some massive cannon.

"What happened here?" Rukia asked, frantic.

"Kurosaki... He, he killed them..." Momo spoke, even as her voice faded and her condition worsened.

Uryu grimaced at the sound of his friend's name. Ichigo had done all this, and hadn't he been the one to advocate negotiation?

"Ichigo did all this?" Rukia asked as horror bloomed in her chest.

"Not... not his fault. Asaki was a damned fool..." The lieutenant muttered as pain wormed it's way across her adrenaline-fueled body.

Rukia noticed Momo's imminent death, and very rapidly set out to heal her. Yet, her kido was unable to do much, and as she healed one part of her, the rest of her body fell apart very quickly. Momo's breathing became irregular and unsteady, and her eyelids were getting heavier. Her hands stilled and rested against her chest, and she stopped talking.

"Dammit, Hinamori, I never said you could die!" Rukia forced as much energy into her hands as she could, but the effects of her kido were limited.

Uryu kept watch, and as a familiar figure came into sight, his breath was caught in his lungs. Ichigo was blood-splattered and charred half-to-death. His arms and legs were split and cut from the excess of spiritual energy that had been forced into them. A massive cut had ripped his clothing open, from his shoulder to his hip. Most disturbing, however, was the crimson red zanpakuto that had been rammed through his stomach.

Ichigo stumbled forward for a moment, and nearly collapsed to the ground. Instead, his hands shot out and produced a tiny blast of force to the ground, pushing him back up and restoring his balance. The Quincy looked at his friends with eyes so filled with pain and guilt, it was hard not to pity him.

"Uryu... I... I didn't want to kill them..." Ichigo looked at him with those eyes once more, and the tears slowly welling up inside them. "I'm a monster... I'm a monster..." Ichigo collapsed the the ground, and the zanpakuto inside his stomach slowly pushed upward.

Uryu was left speechless, and he could only hold his hands out to support his friend as he slumped against him. Blood stained his Quincy uniform, but right now, that wasn't even on the list of his concerns. Ichigo would die without help, that much was certain. He gingerly placed Ichigo on the ground, and pulled the zanpakuto out of his back.

Uryu tossed the bloodied weapon to the ground in disgust, and averted his attention from the open wound in Ichigo's back. Most disconcerting, however, was not the blood that was lazily flowing form the opened wound. It was the _lack_ of blood, as if his body literally had no more blood to give. That aside, Uryu remembered what his idiot friend had done awhile back in order to stop the bleeding. He had cauterized it. With his own reiryoku.

"You're a dumbass, you know that, Kurosaki?" Uryu gathered reishi into the palm of his left hand, and formed a crude, swirling mass of searing blue energy.

"I'm sorry." Uryu murmured as he began to close the wounds.

Despite Ichigo's apparent unconsciousness, he was screaming as the heat burned his injuries closed, screaming in pain and terror as the orb of blue energy ran down his wounds.

"Argh!" Ichigo gave a strangled cry of pain as Uryu continued to cauterize his wounds.

The Quincy could only look away from the pain and terror on his friend's face as he sealed his wounds. He moved to the gaping injury that ran through his stomach. Uryu gulped and reformed the crude mass of energy.

"I'm so sorry, Ichigo." Uryu squeezed his eyes shut and thrust his searing hand onto his wound.

The smell of burning flesh met with Uryu's nose, and the Quincy had never been more sick in his life. The wound closed a few seconds later, but to Uryu, those seconds felt like an eternity all on their own. He flipped Ichigo on his stomach, and did the same to those injuries as well. Ichigo's screams, impossibly enough, seemed even louder.

After a long while, Uryu felt a cold hand on his shoulder. He looked up with red and blotchy eyes, and saw Rukia. The Quincy got up, and hoisted Ichigo over his shoulder. They walked in silence, Uryu covered in blood, and Rukia looking tired and world-weary.

Finally, Uryu asked a simple question, if only to break the silence.

"The Shinigami?"

Rukia's answer was immediate and sorrowful. "Momo's dead. I... I couldn't do anything for her..."

Uryu grimaced. Ichigo was alive, but it had been extremely touch and go for most of the 'treating' process. Meanwhile, Rukia wasn't able to do anything at all. Today was a horrific day, for everyone involved.

They reached the Kurosaki Clinic twenty minutes later. Rukia climbed up into Ichigo's room, and immediately fell asleep on his bed. Uryu wandered inside and put Ichigo on a nearby medical cot. Isshin wandered in a moment later, and Uryu could only look at the man with guilty eyes and a bloodied face.

Isshin understood immediately, and went to work on his son.

Seven hours later, and Isshin emerged from the medical room. He was looking extremely tired and pale, and his hands were shaking uncontrollably. Ichigo was stabilized, thank god, but it had taken a great toll on everyone. Yuzu and Karin were screaming and begging, they wanted, _needed_ to know why their brother had returned so badly injured all the time. Masaki was looking guilty and angry, as if it was her fault that her son had ever been dragged into this.

And Isshin, Isshin was by far, the worst off in the room. Not only were his emotions haywire and his fears realized, but he was extremely weak too. He had just transferred half of his blood into his son just to keep him alive- Something that had very nearly killed the both of them. He wished that his son had never been born, if only to spare him the pain and suffering that he had taken over the years.

All the while, Ichigo stirred as memories flooded his mind. Memories that seemed disturbingly like nightmares to the Quincy.

_"You bastard."_

_ The Shinigami was looking both smug and evil, with his zanpakuto rammed through his back. Ichigo snapped._

_ Reiryoku flooded into his arm at astonishing rates, created a swirling, torrential mass of energy that was easily as big as his head. He released it with a thunderclap explosion, sending a white-blue pillar of energy into the Shinigami. The pillar sent the Shinigami crashing into a cliff, where he and his vital organs spread around the rock._

_ The other Shinigami jumped into action. The Quincy was hit several times, and while some of those injuries were fatal, he couldn't bring himself to care. Instead, he cut them all down mercilessly. Blood flew and heat spread, but again, he couldn't bring himself to care._

_ He had killed them all, he was a murderer. He was a killer, a scumbag, a criminal._

_ He was a monster._

A monster. A criminal. A murderer.

Ichigo was now all of those things, all of them and more.

He woke up in a strange bed, in a strange room. Sterile white met his eyes, and gentle light flowed from the lights above him. His eyes scanned the room around him. On a cot, not far from his own, Uryu was sleeping. And on the floor, amidst some makeshift bedding, Rukia was there too, looking at him with the most guilty, sorrowful eyes he had ever seen.

"Ichigo..." Rukia began, but her voice fell dead.

Instead, the Shinigami flung herself at Ichigo, clutching him and sobbing uncontrollably. Ichigo was left to awkwardly pat her back, unsure of what to do or what exactly was happening.

"It's all my fault! If I had been strong enough to kill those two hollows on my own, the Shinigami would have never found you!" Rukia's breath hitched as she cried, nearly shouting in her grief. "Momo would have never died, you would have never gotten so hurt, and Uryu wouldn't have to feel so guilty!" Rukia was an emotional, crying mess. Ichigo could relate.

"Rukia... I need you to know, that this isn't your fault. It's mine... I killed those Shinigami... I'm at fault here, not you..."

"Dammit, Ichigo, I can't let you take the blame for this... Damn you!" Rukia clutched at him even harder, something that was very uncomfortable for the hospitalized Ichigo.

"If you won't let me take the blame, how 'bout we share it?" What the Quincy had just said, sounded like the dumbest, yet oddly logical thing he could have ever said. It sounded humorous, but Ichigo's tone was deadly serious.

"Damn you, Strawberry, damn you to whatever hell you crawled out of." Rukia said, still sobbing into his shirt.

Ichigo was silent and contemplative. He thought over yesterday's events, and what had happened. The Quincy was feeling weak and miserable, but far from dead. He separated Rukia from his chest with practiced ease- He had done the same to Yuzu so many times when he came home broken and battered.

To no one's surprise, Uryu was already up when Ichigo stepped onto the linoleum floor. The racket he and Rukia had caused would have woken the dead.

"Oi, Ishida, we're going back to the forest. I need to honor the ones I... The ones I killed." Ichigo found it difficult to look his friend in the eye, and instead focused on putting on something other than his hospital gown.

"Okay, Kurosaki." Never in his life did Uryu think he would ever go _anywhere_ to honor a Shinigami. Yet, his hate had always been misguided. He hadn't ever seen a Shinigami up close, and before yesterday, he'd certainly never fought one.

His hatred was forgotten, his anger, lost. Instead, all he felt was intense guilt. The only two survivors of the Shinigami raiding party were the two scientists, and Uryu had put one in critical condition with his fighting.

Rukia tagged along, wishing to honor the dead, wishing to honor the Shinigami who died so they could live.

They walked in solemn silence, a line of people, all looking world-weary and depressed. It didn't help that the sky was pregnant with the rain.

_I hate the rain._ Ichigo thought sullenly as he stepped into the forest.

No one protested when he manifested a reishi blade to cut the branches and underbrush in their way. No one argued when Ichigo cut down a tree only to express his undeniable anger with the whole situation. No one said a word when he began to tear up at the grave site.

The bodies had already dissipated into reishi, but their blades remained. Reverently, as if handling an ancient artifact, Ichigo stabbed each blade into the ground to create an impromptu cross. After placing the four zanpakuto in a semi-straight line, Ichigo went to Momo's blade. Tobiume was resting against a tree, unused and lonely.

It was said that when a Shinigami died, their zanpakuto spirit did too, as it was a part of their soul. Then why was it that all Ichigo could feel from Tobiume was sadness and loneliness. Why was it that the blade seemed so melancholic when it was stabbed into the ground. When Tobiume's hilt was facing the sun, Ichigo took the blood-splattered remains of Momo's lieutenant's badge and wrapped it around the zanpakuto's hilt.

Ichigo fell to his knees in front of the five blades, and the rain fell. Soaked to the bone and filled with regret, Ichigo nearly cried in front of the tomb. He didn't, however. He had to be strong for the fallen, to give his strength to those who died, no matter how little he had left.

Hours later, and Ichigo was still there, even after Rukia and Uryu had begged him to leave. The three of them were still there, and so was the rain. Ichigo couldn't do anything but feel guilty. Ichigo felt weak and lonely, and miserable all at once. Right now, he felt like the monster he knew he was.

He got to his feet in silence, and apologized to the five blades.

"I'm sorry..." He said, over and over again.

Ichigo felt a hand on his shoulder, and he turned to see Rukia, reaching up to grab his shoulder.

"I'm surprised you can reach up here." With a weak smile and forced effort, Ichigo joked.

Rukia smiled, and pulled Ichigo away from the grave. Uryu followed along, moving with the two and feeling just as miserable. They walked on in silence, and although the rain around them was cold and draining, they made no move to walk faster or seek shelter. For the three of them, rain was all that they deserved.

Ichigo and Uryu parted ways when they reached his estate. Goodbyes were exchanged, but that was all. Rukia and Ichigo walked home alone, and the rain met them at every step.

Rain, the never ending, eternal rain.

_Seireitei, present time_

"Who did it?" The angry voice of Toshiro Hitsugaya filled the dark chambers of Mayuri's chamber. The Captain was furious, and grieving. Not only had Momo not returned from her mission, despite the return date being two days ago, but Mayuri was the one who sent her on the mission in the first place. Now, he had just gotten word of her death.

"Tell me now, Kurotsuchi!"

The deranged captain only looked at the person in front of him. Truth be told, he too was rather miffed. His collection team had failed, and not only that, but two of his own scientists had been injured badly too. His specimen had escaped and the alert had been raised. Finding him for a second try wouldn't be easy. Actually _attempting_ another capture would be nigh on impossible now that he had been alerted to their presence.

"Kurotsuchi! Tell me who the hell killed Momo!"

Absentmindedly, the scientist brought up a video screen. The footage showed a tired-looking Rukia Kuchiki stepping away from Momo's shredded corpse. Toshiro's expression immediately darkened.

"Kuchiki." He said furiously, and vanished from sight a moment later.

When the little Captain's reiatsu winked out of existence, Kurotsuchi cackled madly. A little misdirection, some unspoken words, and a number of lies insured that Toshiro wouldn't try to harm his valued specimen, or something equally unproductive. Kuchiki was of no use to him, and it was fortunate that he could use her to redirect the little Captain away from his prized little specimen.

"Now then, let us see just what the little Quincy is doing." Mayuri had taken the opportunity to plant mobile cameras on all the Shinigami who were on the capture team. These cameras, powered by kido and disguised as fruit-flies, were now following the Quincy twenty-four seven.

Currently, the Quincy was at the forest clearing, the one where he had killed all those Shinigami. He seemed to have set up a memorial of sorts, and was grieving over their deaths.

"You are an interesting creature, my little Quincy. I'd love to stuff you in a jar." Mayuri turned off the monitor and stepped out of his chamber.

"Nemu!" He shouted. His lieutenant appeared in front of him before he had even finished.

"Yes, Mayuri-sama?"

"Prepare a second team to capture the Quincy. I'd like two lieutenants and five officers of at least a fifth seat level."

"As you command, Mayuri-sama." Nemu set off immediately, moving towards the Division 1 Barracks.

After the fiasco from the other day, Yamamoto would likely be hesitant to send more senior officers into the fray. Momo's death had spread chaos throughout the fifth, and her captain seemed to be in a much more sullen and irritable mood. Not only that, but it had also caused Captain Hitsugaya to immediately storm off in a rage. The Captain would likely attempt to kill the ones responsible, and if, by chance, he died too, it would be an enormous loss to the Gotei Thirteen.

Of course, there was always the chance that Yamamoto would see this as a perfect opportunity to capture the Quincy before he could do any more damage to their ranks.

Nemu arrived a few moments later, and immediately explained the situation to the Head Captain.

At the moment, Yamamoto's mindset was geared toward assassination, and he agreed to send Lieutenants Renji Abarai and Izuru Kira into battle. Both had known Momo as a friend, and they'd likely attempt to kill the Quincy rather than capture it. As it stood, the Head-Captain didn't want a prisoner or a research subject.

He wanted a corpse.

Yoruichi returned from her scouting mission shortly after the Head-Captain had ordered Ichigo Kurosaki's 'capture'. Shoji doors opened in the night sky, and a black cat jumped out of them. The cat landed gracefully on the pavement and went towards the Urahara Shoten with practiced ease.

She reached the small and shady candy shop and climbed in through an open window. The cat padded down the hall and eventually reached a small room. Urahara saw the cat and immediately dropped his book.

"Yoruichi. Anything to report?"

"Yes. Yama-ji's going to send an assassination team for Kurosaki. Two lieutenants, two third seats, and a fifth seat." The cat's voice was grave and sullen.

"Who are they?" Urahara asked.

"Renji Abarai, Izuru Kira, Yumichika Ayasegawa, Ikkaku Madarame, and three other officers I didn't get the names of. However, all of them are of at least fifth seat level."

"That's not good... Can he and Uryu take care of it?"

"Maybe. If Uryu trained with the Sanrei glove, and was extremely lucky, he might be able to take on one of the lieutenants. Still, Ichigo could defeat one, and maybe one of the other officers, but it would be a close battle. Should we help him?"

Urahara considered it for a moment. "No, if we blow our cover this early in the game, my plans are going to go pear-shaped."

The cat, had it even been possible with it's facial structure, would have sneered in disgust. "If Ichigo get's killed this early in the game, your plans will still go pear-shaped. What if Tessai and I went to help them out?"

"No. We're hiding for a reason, and if we reveal ourselves to be allied with the Quincy, we'll be hunted down relentlessly by the Gotei. We just have to have faith that Ichigo can deal with this problem on his own."

"He's just a kid, Urahara. The guy's barely fifteen and he's stared death in the face almost as many times as us."

Urahara sighed. "I know, but right now, he's the only one of us that even has a chance of stopping Aizen."

The cat only looked out the window in silence, after that.

_Human World, three days later_

"Rukia. You need to go back home... If the Shinigami find out about this, that you're helping me... You're going to be executed."

Rukia scoffed. "They'll execute me now, dumbass. There's not much I can do about that, so I'll just keep helping you." The short Shinigami gave a smile.

"Dammit, you're so irritating, ya know that? Don't you have family and friends who are waiting on you?"

The Shinigami's expression darkened. "I... I have a brother, but we aren't close. In fact, I don't even think he knows I'm gone. And I have a friend too, but we haven't talked in so long... To be honest... You're the only friend I've had in a long time..."

Ichigo fell silent for a moment. But only a moment. "Don't get soft on me, Rukia. I thought you were supposed to be a badass hollow-killer, ne?"

"Shut up, you stupid Strawberry! I am a badass, you just can't see it!"

"Of course I can't see it, you're too damned short, Midget."

Ichigo earned a kick in the shin for that one.

The boy looked out the window, contemplating. He had killed someone, had killed five people, actually. Yet, his guilt was gone in just two short days. Did that make him a monster? A sociopath? Right now, Ichigo didn't know. Not only that, but he had condemned Rukia from ever returning home, to the only place she ever knew, and had nearly thrown away his own life.

If there was one thing that he did know, it as that the Shinigami would be out for blood after this. If Hat-and-Clogs' teaching was anything to go by, the death of a lieutenant would spur a lot in motion. Ichigo could probably defeat one in a singular fight, but assassinations never were quite so fair as that.

"Rukia."

"Yeah, Strawberry?"

"I have a feeling that things are going to get really bad, really fast."

Rukia was silent. She felt the very same way. If the Gotei Thirteen was anything like she remembered them to be- And it had only been a few months, they couldn't have changed that much- Then an assassination/capture team would be after them _very_ soon.

Rukia didn't know how powerful this team could be, or how many were on it.

Right now, Rukia didn't _want_ to know.

* * *

><p><strong>AN**

**So Ichigo's getting assassinated, huh? Who else didn't see that coming?**

**Honestly, when I write, I don't plan things out. I let my ideas go from one to the other, so if you make predictions about the story further than I have written, expect me to say "I don't know." Just throwin' that out there.**


	7. Raiding Party

**A/N**

**So, things are starting to pick up now. The plot is reaching critical mass, but it's far from over. Also, if you're squeemish about blood and gore and whatnot, back out now. Just know that the original, uncensored version of this chapter was _far, far_ worse than what you're about to read.**

* * *

><p><em>Human world, night<em>

"Where is he. Where's the bastard who killed Momo?" Izuru's eyes seemed to be glowing red with anger, and it was all Renji could do to keep him from snapping and abandoning them entirely.

"It's alright, Izuru. If you just calmed down a bit, you could probably hone in on his reiatsu." Renji placated, despite feeling quite irritable himself.

"I can't calm down!" The Shinigami snapped and barked aggressively at his friend. "Momo... She was my friend, I loved her like a sister, dammit! I can't let her death go unavenged..."

Renji fell silent. As the two Shinigami, away from the rest of their team, looked up into the moon, both were entangled deeply within their own emotions. Renji, although not as well-informed as the Captains, was well aware of Rukia's defection. From what it seemed, she had not only let the Quincy who had killed Momo go unharmed, but had also given him _training_ for Christ's sake. His best and friend, a defector.

Izuru was enraged, seeking any and all opportunities to break away from the group. Momo had helped him so many times, given him a hand when he fell down, spoke comforting words whenever he witnessed a slaughter, or simply lent her sword when his was struggling. Now she was dead, and what had he done to stop it?  
>Unconsciously, Izuru tightened his grip on Wabisuke. He spared a final glance at the half-moon above him, and sighed. The nights in the human world were so much more beautiful than the nights in the Soul Society. So why then, why did Momo have to die here?<p>

"Izuru. We should head back to camp, the walk'll clear your head."

The blond Shinigami complied silently and got to his feet. The moonlight showed them the way to their camp. Silence met with silence, and all seven of the Shinigami invaders fell asleep one by one. All of them, except Izuru. The Third Division Lieutenant was kept awake by his own grief.

In that respect, Grief was ever so much better than coffee.

* * *

><p>Hideous and cloud-strewn daylight fought against the night sky, slowly pushing it away. The black curtain receded, and an odd gray daylight made it's way toward the earth.<p>

Ichigo awoke to a new pain in his old scars. Rainy days always seemed to do that to him. He dressed himself quickly and haphazardly, accidentally putting on one of Rukia's shirts, and then redressing into a simple black one. He put on a pair of battered blue jeans, and padded down the stairs. Rukia was sitting at the bottom steps, doing nothing in particular.

"What day is it, Midget?"

"I dunno. Figure it out yourself, Strawberry."

It had been thirteen days since Ichigo killed the five Shinigami sent to do God-knows-what. Each individual day, it was a struggle not to snap and murder the carefree teens around him, at the school and at home. Yuzu complained about math homework, and Karin complained about the annoying boys at her school. Ichigo loved his family more than anything, but sometimes he wished they would just _jam a sock in it._

Then school came, and things got worse. Dating, emotions, sports, popularity, school. All of these complaints left Ichigo deadly close to murdering everyone with whatever weapons he could find. All of these complaints left him growling and snarling at anyone who attempted to speak to him in the slightest.

Yet, all the while, Uryu was gone. He hadn't shown up for school, nor had he been at home. The _only_ person who could possibly relate to his situation, other than Rukia, was gone. In all seriousness, the situation made Ichigo want to wring his own throat.

So, he had simply stopped. He was a high-school dropout now, and he couldn't care less. Keigo was envious, Mizuiro ambivalent, and Tatsuki furious. He didn't remember how many text messages he got asking him _why_, or how many times Tatsuki and Orihime had dropped by his house to kick his ass for being a delinquent (Pretty much just Tatsuki on that one). He couldn't remember how many times the school begged him not to leave and to simply come back, his presence did raise the school's overall grade-point average by two and a half. Nor did he care that his parents had been enraged at him (mostly his father) as well as worried and concerned (mostly his mother).

Yet, despite the words everyone else said, he had work to do. High-school education or no, he would continue to hunt hollows and Shinigami, and school was just slowing him down.

A familiar reiatsu signature met his senses. One that was strong and powerful, and as sweet as candy.

"Shinigami." Ichigo whispered. He looked at his friend, who was sitting on the chair steps and doing nothing. "Rukia, the assassination team's here. I'm going after them."

"What? You idiot, you'll get killed!" Rukia chased after her friend, but Ichigo vanished moments before she could grab him.

Ichigo arrived at the Ishida estate. The servants let him pass, recognizing him instantly. The groundskeepers waved and greeted him amicably, and Ichigo waved back. On occasion, he'd work at Uryu's estate as a landscaper for a bit of extra cash, and that earned him the respect of those older and wiser than him.

The Quincy stepped into Ryuuken's 'hidden' armory, and immediately donned his iconic white trench coat. A simple white thing with a blue trim, and a six-pronged Quincy Cross on his back. He buttoned the jacket and grabbed a handful of little silver Ginto capsules. No time for anything else, he thought as he vanished from sight and reappeared at the Shinigami's camp.

Directly in front of three Shinigami, he flew in as a white blur, and startled the entire camp. The Quincy immediately dashed forward and planted a reiatsu-infused fist into the nearest humanoid figure. The unlucky person he crashed sailed into a tree, but Ichigo didn't spare even a fraction of a glance. He turned to the next two, slamming his foot into the first and firing a non-lethal blast of energy into the second.

Three new faces, only one of them had a sword drawn.

Pathetic, really.

Ichigo formed a thick chain of reishi and bound the first two together, and approached the third with a venomous look in his eyes. He grabbed him by the neck and pulled him up to look him in the eye.

"Where's the rest of your assassination team?" The Quincy practically screamed at the terrified fifth seat. When the Shinigami was silent, he practically snapped. "WHERE?!"

The Shinigami paled in fear as Ichigo formed his bow and pressed it against his neck. Panicking, the swordsman began to scream in fear and release sporadic bursts of reiatsu. Ichigo would have killed him right then and there if he was as merciless as he thought he was. Ichigo _should_ have killed him right then and there.

He didn't.

Within moments, hollows roared and dashed for their position, drawn by the smell of a Shinigami's reiatsu. Ichigo grunted, threw the panicked swordsman to the ground, and bound him with reishi chains like he did his friends. The first hollow, a plated amalgamation of bear, dog, and oddly enough, fish, launched itself at the exposed Quincy. Ichigo cut the thing down, not caring if it died or not. He severed the top half of it's head, and attacked the others that came his way.

He dodged a spear-like arm, and severed it at the elbow. A _cero_ flew at him, but Ichigo merely batted it away with his fist. The Quincy danced a deadly, graceful tango, slaughtering all those who got in his path, and not caring about collateral damage in the least. Finally, the strongest of hollows came forward. It's reiatsu was distinctly stronger than the rest, and likely the one commanding these lesser beings.

Unfortunately for it, Ichigo had fought stronger hollows.

Like, _way_ stronger.

The Quincy dissipated his bow and absorbed reishi and reiryoku into his right hand. Within moments, he formed a long, thick western style blade that thrummed and burned with flaring energy. He took that blade in his right, and formed another sword to match it in his left. Then, he struck.

Flying forward with speeds enhanced by both his _hirenkyaku_ and a shockwave of reiatsu from his feet, he attacked the hollow. With his right blade, he severed the abomination's left arm and leg, and with his left, he blocked the mass of claws, blades, and hands that swung for him. Stuck in a deadlock, with hollows pressing on his left, and the commander-hollow on his right, Ichigo was hesitant to shatter his blades.

If he did, what would happen to the bound Shinigami over there? If their chains shattered as well, they'd be killed almost instantly.

The commander-hollow attacked and roared in fury. Ichigo was clawed through his right side, the price for his carelessness. However, it did break the deadlock. Ichigo leaped away and struck at the commander-hollow once more, cutting a huge wound down it's back. Blood sprayed in every direction, painting Ichigo's white trench coat a slick crimson.

Grunting, Ichigo reformed his left blade into a spear, and threw it into the hollow's skull. Blood and viscera flew from the wound, and the hollow was dead and dissolving within moments. Ichigo met with the crowd of hollows that had amassed to watch the fight, and promptly raised his hand.

"I have no time to deal with you, small fry."

Ichigo sent a huge pillar of energy crashing into each of them, dissolving them instantly and felling at least three dozen trees in the process. Ichigo took his remaining blade and reformed it into a chain. He promptly bound the three Shinigami together with it, further reinforcing their captivity.

"I'll ask again, _where_ is the rest of your assassination team?" Ichigo asked with his menace full and awakened. When the Shinigami in front of him stuttered and whined in fear, Ichigo unleashed half of his reiatsu to scare them. Turns out, half was by far, too much for them.

The three's eyes bulged in agony, and their lungs and throats closed on themselves. Yet, despite their pain, they couldn't scream, as the pressure kept them from even opening their mouths. Promptly, they were all knocked into oblivion, and slept quietly.

"God... DAMMIT!" Ichigo shouted at the trees and stepped away from the three.

"You did a great job with those hollows, Quincy. Didn't even use your bow."

"Yes, it was a simply _beautiful_ sight."

Ichigo turned to face the two Shinigami who had been watching him. A bald-headed one with his zanpakuto slung over his shoulder, and another, fruitier looking one with odd feathers over his eyes and hair. Both looked at him with what he assumed was murderous glee. Odd Shinigami, but from what Urahara had told him, all the best Shinigami were odd.

"Were you ones sent to kill Rukia and me?" Ichigo asked bluntly.

"Kuchiki? She's not even mentioned in the mission. Nah, we got sent here to take _you_. It's a shame, really, I would've loved to fight y-" Ikkaku began, but didn't finish.

Ichigo slammed a fist into his gut, and was satisfied when he curled over and was launched like a cannonball into the tree behind him. Ichigo turned and delivered a jaw-breaking roundhouse kick at the other Shinigami, who only barely blocked the strike with his forearms. The feather-swordsman tried to move forward and retaliate, but Ichigo promptly threw reishi-daggers into the Shinigami's arms and legs.

The daggers impaled threw his limbs with ease, and launched him back into a cliff face, binding him there for the remainder of what Ichigo was about to do.

"That was a nasty move, you know. Punching me before I finished talking."

With a scoff, Ichigo replied. "I'm so _sorry_. I just get carried away sometimes." Sarcasm dripped from the Quincy's voice.

"Tch, it's fine. As long as you fight me!" Ikkaku looked up, his eyes shining with madness.

"Tell me where the rest of your team is."

"I'll tell me if you can beat me in fair combat!"

Ichigo had prepared for this. He formed dual blades in his right and left, and got into a stance. He looked at his opponent, who was just getting to his feet.

"Alright then, but you better not be lying." Ichigo dashed ahead. "Or I'll cut you down." He whispered as he made the first strike.

Ikkaku blocked the strike with his scabbard and stabbed ahead at the now exposed Quincy. Ichigo, however, was faster. With his second blade, he knocked Ikkaku's zanpakuto up and darted a leg forward. Instead of meeting with flesh, it felt like he kicked a steel beam.

Grimacing in pain, Ichigo pulled back and forced energy into his now injured foot.

"Surprised, huh?" Ikkaku said in a mockingly serious tone of voice. "I learned how to harden my muscles with reiryoku awhile back, but it hurts like hell in the morning."

"I learned to do that when I was nine. I still do it when I get disarmed or something and I need to kill something."

"Makes sense, guys with 'ichi' in their names are always one step above the rest."

_"Hey, I heard that Ikkaku!"_ A distant shout could be heard.

Ichigo stepped forward, eyes glowing blue with rage. "You know my name?"

Ikkaku scoffed. "Half the _Seireitei_ knows your name, you're a wanted man, my Quincy friend."

"It's about those Shinigami I killed earlier, isn't it?"

"Heh, right in one! You killed a lieutenant, you know, and that makes waves." Ikkaku seemed to consider something for a moment. "Now, no more talking, let's fight!" Without any more warning, Ikkaku flew ahead with gleeful madness.

Ichigo blocked the first strike with his right blade, and struck with his left. His reishi-blade met with a scabbard, but Ichigo pushed forward. He cut through the Shinigami's sheath with some difficulty, and landed a hit on the reinforced flesh below. Unfortunately, it cost him when the Shinigami twisted behind him and struck at the back of his head.

The Quincy blocked most of the attack with his blade, but it didn't stop a deep gash on his neck from spewing blood at incredible rates. Immediately weakened by the sudden loss, Ichigo jumped into the air and created a platform under his feet. He dispersed his left blade and created a searing orb of energy in it's place.

He cauterized his wound with deadly efficiency, biting down on the sleeve of his blood-soaked trench coat for stabilization. He flew down shortly after, blade reformed and already swinging. He cut at Ikkaku's arm and severed the muscles and nerves that held it in place. The Shinigami's right dropped to his side, and Ichigo kicked his skull with his right, reiryoku-infused foot.

He launched himself off the Shinigami, and landed several feet away. Ichigo looked as nonplussed as ever, despite the pulsating burn wound on his neck. Ikkaku, however, only looked pleased at these recent developments.

"You're strong, I like that. Then I guess I should get serious, shouldn't I?" Ikkaku held his scabbard and zanpakuto together. "Extend! Hozukimaru!" The blade and sheath melded together, and with a flash of light, reformed into a spear.

"Huh, so that's your Shikai? Interesting." Ichigo seemed about as intrigued as a dead rabbit.

"Don't underestimate me!" Ikkaku shouted and charged, angry and vicious.

Ichigo's dual blades merged into one, giant cleaver-like thing, and he charged forward. Blade in hand, energy whipping around him, and enemy clear in sight. For some reason, this whole thing felt _right_. They clashed, and Ichigo's thrumming blade cut into Hozukimaru with difficulty.

Ikkaku jumped back slightly and stabbed forward, catching Ichigo deep in the arm, and then again, ripping his calf open. Ichigo groaned in agony, but he pressed forward, swinging his blade wildly. Finally, when he realized that his cleaver could do no more, Ichigo jumped back and reformed it into a thick, super-heated javelin.

"A spear, Ichigo? Aren't you impersonatin' me?"

"Not a spear, Ikkaku. A _javelin_."

Ichigo tossed the rod of condensed energy at Ikkaku, who only barely sidestepped it. The javelin slammed into the ground behind him, and exploded in a blue firestorm of energy. The bald-headed Shinigami was promptly engulfed in the glowing blue corona, and brought to his knees by the burning pain.

Ichigo slumped to his knees, finding it difficult to move. Ikkaku had done a huge amount of damage, slashing open his arm, and then his calf to boot. In fact, he reckoned that if he didn't close the wound soon, he would bleed to death. He prepared a thrumming orb of energy, searing with heat, but was interrupted by a blood-soaked hand.

_"Hey, don't do that, you idiot! Ikkaku's got some medicine in his sheathe, I think!"_ Ichigo heard Yumichika shout in the distance.

Ichigo dissipated the orb. "Why are you telling me this?!" He shouted back.

_"You're the first good fight Ikkaku's gotten in years, he'd be angry if I let you die!"_

Somehow, Ichigo didn't doubt him. He strolled over to Ikkaku's burnt body, and sensed the stubborn reiatsu coming off his body. He took his sheathe, and found the medicine underneath a cap. He closed his wounds with it, finding that it was more than effective at it's job. In fact, the damned stuff seemed to do more than just close the wound. From what it seemed, not even a scar remained.

Marvelous.

Then, there was the problem in front of him. Ikkaku was bleeding out, and there was no chance of survival if he didn't get treated immediately. With a sigh, Ichigo knelt down and used his own ointment on him, closing his most pressing and bleeding wounds. Between him and Ikkaku, he had exhausted the entire supply before he was even half finished. Fortunately, Ikkaku would live now that the worst of his injuries were treated.

Ichigo stepped away from the Shinigami, and unbound Yumichika as thanks.

"I don't suppose Ikkaku'll be telling me about the others, will he?" Ichigo asked sarcastically, jerking his thumb at the unconscious man lying on the ground.

"I don't suppose he will. You should go, I'm sure the other Shinigami will be here soon."

To the peacock Shinigami's surprise, Ichigo only grinned widely. "You kiddin'? This is exactly what I've been waiting for!"

Renji and Izuru arrived just a few minutes after, and Ichigo was standing next to them when they blurred into sight. The two Shinigami started at the sight of the blood-soaked, injured human, and the human only smiled the widest, most innocent smile he could muster.

"Yo." Still grinning his idiotic grin, Ichigo greeted them.

Left speechless, Renji said nothing. Izuru didn't either. Instead, the blond-haired Shinigami promptly attacked Ichigo, swinging his zanpakuto in wide, deadly arcs.

"Did you kill Momo!?" The Shinigami screeched as Ichigo summoned a reishi shield to parry the attack.

Ichigo's defense weakened, his eyes softened. Something not lost on Renji, but certainly unseen to Izuru.

"Yes." He said meekly, unsure of his moral footing.

"You bastard! I'LL KILL YOU!" Izuru screamed and attacked, releasing his zanpakuto effortlessly.

The hook-shaped blade crashed against Ichigo's shield, and though the attack had all the menace and anger that Izuru could muster behind it, the strike inflicted little damage. Izuru attacked him again and again, crashing the blade against his shield, not moving to kill at all.

Over time, Ichigo realized that his shield was slowly getting heavier, and his defense was slipping. Izuru capitalized on this and immediately struck at his opening. Ichigo dodged the flying hook blade, and promptly jumped back. His shield was heavy now, now weighing as much as a bar of lead. No amount of reforging would change that.

"Damn, that's one interesting zanpakuto you got there." Ichigo said in a completely serious tone as Izuru launched himself at him.

Steel met with shield, and the shield doubled in weight. Ichigo's arm dropped, and Izuru brought down his blade. Ichigo barely managed to parry the attack with his right blade, throwing Izuru off and jabbing him in the gut. The attack was weak and halfhearted, but it was more than enough to relight Izuru's ire.

"Die!" They clashed, and although Ichigo's left shield was reforged into a battleaxe, it still weighed as much as a bag of bricks.

Ichigo swung both his blades in tandem, splitting Izuru's chest open, end to end. Blood sprayed onto his trench coat, but it was far from the first that had been spilled onto it. Izuru ignored his injury and attacked the new opening Ichigo had created. The Quincy's arm was slashed open, and it fell limp to his right side.

"Damn!" Ichigo shouted and leaped backward, his battleaxe weighing heavily on him.

He had to release this weight, or it would break his arm. Trouble was, he didn't know how. Izuru was relentless, and he spared no opportunity. He attacked instantaneously, slashing and cutting wherever he could. Ichigo reinforced his body with reiryoku and created artificial nerves with _Ransōtengai_, but it wasn't quite enough to prevent injuries.

Something about his weapon, however, was strange. It was heavy, definitely, but it was more powerful, too. It was as if the blade that his enemy was using was transferring both reishi and weight to his weapon... Now that he thought about it, that was a likely scenario. The zanpakuto took reishi from the air, and transferred it to whatever spiritual item it hit. That reishi would make the object heavier and heavier, until his opponent simply couldn't lift his weapon.

It was fortunate that, as a Quincy, reishi was part and parcel for the job. Or perhaps, as the next few events would prove, very _un_fortunate.

Ichigo reforged his battleaxe into an orb of power, and launched it forward in an attempt to rid himself of the weight. The blast, though extremely powerful, had missed Izuru by a hair and the pressure and heat of the blast was enough to break Ichigo's arm, shatter it into dozens of pieces, and send each of those pieces flying out of his arm like a shotgun blast. The heat output from the beam was enough to sear off most of the flesh on his hand. The energy shockwave ripped him open from the inside out, rupturing organs, breaking bones, and sending bone fragments spraying out of his flesh.

Agony, interspersed with sporadic bursts of adrenaline, tore him apart. He fell to his knees, clutching at his (literal) bleeding heart, and attempting to heal his critical injuries. Izuru seemed both horrified, satisfied, and confused by what was happening. Blood sprayed in each direction, driving those who witnessed it to near madness.

The boy fell to his knees and screamed in agony, even as his lungs collapsed and his heart ruptured and exploded. Blood streamed from his eyes, and flowed in rivers from his mouth, painting his face red. More desperate than ever before, Ichigo screamed and screamed, spewing droplets of blood everywhere.

Riddled with wounds, inside and out, Ichigo collapsed and hit the ground, suddenly unable to pull any air in. Izuru approached his rapidly dying corpse, his hands plastered over his mouth and his eyes wide with fear.

"No... Not even you deserve this, Quincy..." The Shinigami whispered as Ichigo felt his body get cold.

He felt his soul separating from his body, felt his essence being _ripped_ out of him. Pain met and fought with every movement he made, and it would have drove a lesser man insane. An invisible, but inarguable force pushed him out of his broken corpse, and Ichigo was almost powerless to stop it.

_Not yet._

Ichigo resisted every movement, yet his arm was pushed up and his chest ripped upward.

_Not yet!_

The Quincy fought back, pushing against whatever was forcing him to leave his body.

_NOT YET DAMMIT!_

His soul almost wholesale ejected from him, but Ichigo managed to stop the process. Half his body was in, and half was out. His chest, head, and arms had pulled out, and Ichigo was unable to reenter his body.

"How... How did you stop it? How did you stop yourself from dying?"

Ichigo tried to answer, but instead found his mouth plastered shut and his body, powerless. He was paralyzed, not by fear or poison, but by his own body. The Quincy looked down to the severed chain protruding from his chest. The metal length was rapidly regenerating, and would soon reconnect with his body, giving him his life back.

Unfortunately, that would take far too long, and the horrified blond Shinigami was approaching him with the intent of Konso'ing his disembodied soul.

_I need more power! I need to stop him! _Ichigo screamed in his mind, and he fought against his unmoving body.

Then, his eyes gravitated to the chain protruding from his chest again, and he formulated a plan.

A very stupid, very reckless plan.

But that was the very embodiment of Ichigo, wasn't it?

* * *

><p>Rukia was scared. Terrified, even. Cold air circulated around her, the skies above seemed to be ready to drop a blizzard, despite it being mid-spring. She had gone after Ichigo, of course, and now this had happened.<p>

Captain of the Tenth, Toshiro Hitsugaya, was staring her down with a drawn zanpakuto.

Without as much as a warning, the Captain launched himself at her. They clashed, blade on blade, but one was well over fifteen times as strong as the other. Rukia was thrown back by the force of the strike, and subsequently slammed into a building. The Captain's icy glare was leveled on her in an instant, and he approached with murderous intent.

"Captain Hitsugaya! Why?!" Rukia shouted as the icy zanpakuto sent waves of ice rolling up and down her body.

"You're a murderer, Kuchiki." With a quiet, menacing tone and a raised zanpakuto, Toshiro struck.

Rukia was split open in an instant, right hip to left shoulder, and left hip to right shoulder, creating a deep, clean X-shaped wound. Blood fanned out in all directions, but the icy Captain paid no mind and continued to attack, tearing Rukia apart with his quick, clean strikes. She screamed in pain and fell to the ground, unable to do more than lie there as her blood seeped out from under her.

A mere one and a half minutes, and Rukia was feeling more dead than ever before.

"A quick execution is too good for you, Scum." Hitsugaya approached the dying Rukia and raised his blade.

Blue flashed in his vision, and an arrow was planted firmly in the Captain's forehead. Hitsugaya was thrown into the air and blinded temporarily by the strike. He landed with a crash, cracking the ground beneath him and distorting the air around him. Toshiro looked up to see a Quincy, dressed in a bright white coat and halter, looking as bored as ever.

"I don't like you much, Rukia, but you're Ichigo's friend. I'm sure he'd be mad if I let you die." The Quincy said, not even looking at the dying girl.

The icy Captain paid no mind to the words being exchanged, and launched himself at the Quincy before his sentence was finished. Uryu blocked the strike with his bow, and jumped back when he realized that his body was literally breaking apart from the strength put behind the attack.

At this point, Uryu knew he stood no chance against the Captain, unless he used the only gift his Sensei had ever given him.

The Sanrei Glove.

Uryu reached into his halter and pulled it out- Dodging attacks all the while. It was a simple thing, stiff metal that bended like rubber, outfitted with four prongs on either side that allowed for uninhibited reishi absorption, concentration, and firing. It took a week of continuous training to use, but it was ready now.

The price, of course, was that Uryu's Quincy abilities were in grave danger when he used the bow. If either of the four prongs were shot off, cut off, or deliberately destroyed while the bow was donned, then he would lose his powers forever. His grandfather had warned him about it, but Uryu had realized that there wasn't a chance of him coming out victorious over the Shinigami without it.

Uryu threw the glove on and reformed his bow- Now solid and easily taller than him. The Quincy fired the first few volleys at his enemy, who dodged them effortlessly as he made his way closer and closer to him. Toshiro got within striking distance, and attacked. Uryu parried the strike with his bow- And panicked inwardly when the solid manifestation crumbled away.

The Quincy repaired his bow and fired an arrow, pegging Toshiro's shoulder and throwing off his aim. Uryu jumped into the air and fired another few volleys, all of which were blocked by Toshiro's sealed zanpakuto. The Captain followed after him, eyes glowing with rage and sword filled with ice. Uryu's arm was opened up in an instant, but any and all blood that flowed out was instantly frozen by the intense cold his zanpakuto was outputting.

"Murderers like you..." Toshiro intoned. "Will all die!"

Uryu felt agony pierce his gut, and run his way through his body. Toshiro's zanpakuto was stuck within the Quincy's body, and the Captain grunted in annoyance as he tried to pull it out.

Uryu grinned as he reached for his Seele Schneider.

Toshiro's chest was cut open within in an instant, and the Captain stumbled back. Uryu rushed ahead and stabbed the Captain with his spirit-blade, and then did the same with another, and another. Dissipating his bow, Uryu grabbed two of his reishi-blades in both his hands, and he attacked with the ferocity and accuracy (or lack thereof) of a barbarian, ripping the surprised Captain apart.

Blood and viscera stained Uryu's clothes, the coppery stink of blood filled the air, and Rukia watched on as she attempted to patch her injuries with kido. Toshiro's Hyorinmaru slipped from his grasp, and remained embedded in Uryu's gut. It was forgotten as Uryu ripped apart the child prodigy, spraying his blood in any and all directions.

With a roar, the Quincy stabbed his last two Seele Schneiders into Toshiro's gut, creating a perfectly symmetrical pentacle on the Captain's body. Uryu pulled the Captain's zanpakuto from his gut, ignoring the flow of blood and burst of pain it took, and stabbed it directly into the center of this pentacle.

Uryu formed his bow, and jumped back. He fired a shot into the hilt of Toshiro's Hyorinmaru, focusing his reishi and reiryoku into the pentacle.

Toshiro screamed as bright blue light tore him open from the inside out, starting from the blade _of his own zanpakuto_, to the outer edges of the Seele Schneiders, creating a small, perfect pentacle about the size of the Captain's head, in his gut. A pillar of energy, perfectly straight and even, shot from both ends of the Captain's body, firing in each direction for what seemed like hours, and annihilating everything in it's path.

When the light cleared, a clean, non-bleeding pentacle had opened on Toshiro's chest. A hole that was as clear as day, and as open as a tunnel. Eyes wide with surprise, and dull as sanded glass, the Captain fell back and hit the ground, creating a growing pool of blood underneath him. Uryu followed suit just a moment after, and he slumped against a concrete wall. Blood trailed behind him as he sat there, bleeding out.

Rukia had never been more horrified in her life. Uryu and Toshiro were both dying rapidly, Toshiro much faster than the Quincy, yet only one could be saved with what little energy she had left. She cursed the world, and dragged Uryu to a safer place- But not before contacting the 4th Division's emergency response team with Captain Hitsugaya's denreishinki. She only prayed that Momo and Toshiro wouldn't have to die within the same month as each other.

* * *

><p>Izuru walked toward him with pity in his eyes, and fear in his heart. Ichigo didn't like it. His time was running low, and he'd likely get sent on if he was too slow.<p>

So, he grabbed the chain on his chest, and _pulled._

Blood spilled from the now open wound, and the pain was enormous. Izuru shouted for him to stop, but Ichigo paid him no mind as he ripped out his chain of fate. His screams got distorted, his hands beastly, and all the other Shinigami only watched the Quincy's final act of desperation in utter horror.

With dwindling strength, Ichigo took his left hand and joined it with his right, and _pulled._ Blood spewed onto the ground, and the hole in his chest widened. Only moments after, his chain was on the ground and disintegrating rapidly. For a moment, nothing happened.

But _only_ for a moment.

Ichigo felt his body collapse on itself, and it attempted to explode. Yet, something kept it from doing that, something stopped it from blowing itself apart and reforming elsewhere. Instead, Ichigo began to spew white fluid and blood from his mouth and eyes, and a liquid mask formed on his face. His head seemed to explode in agony, and his soul was tearing itself apart, but the Quincy had done this willingly.

Power was needed. Ichigo had simply reached for that power.

The Quincy's mask formed, and it seemed to stop there. The pain subsided, the soul-tearing halted, and all that was left in Ichigo's spiritual body was an intense emptiness that was growing at an astounding rate. But for now, power was coursing through him, and that felt good.

_Really_ good.

Ichigo removed his mask and spared not even a second glance for it. Instead, he formed his bow with his Bangle, and eyed his opponent warily.

"Logic says I should kill you. I say screw logic." Ichigo said proudly, if a little hoarse-sounding.

"What... What the hell are you?!" Izuru practically shouted. Ichigo chuckled.

"You know, I don't even know that myself. Get outta my town, and don't hurt Rukia or Uryu, or any other one of my friends." Ichigo stuffed himself back inside his battered body, and was relieved when it repaired itself at astonishing speeds.

"I have to tell my Captain about this!" Izuru shouted, although he really was going to do no such thing.

"You do that. Just know that if the next assassination team comes after my friends..." Ichigo turned to face the Shinigami. "They, and every other Shinigami bastard, will have hell to pay." With that, the Quincy waved goodbye and walked away, looking nonplussed as ever.

Funny, how things had happened. First Ichigo was a Quincy, now he was a Quincy-hollow hybrid- Something that should have been, by all means, impossible.

Yet, Ichigo had a reputation for breaking the impossible.

* * *

><p><em>Seireitei, thirty-three hours later<em>

"The entire team was defeated?!" Yamamoto shouted in rage.

"Yes sir. The members were spared, but they were badly wounded and on the verge of death." Sosakibe reported.

"This is... Disconcerting. What of Captain Hitsugaya?"

"Also alive. However, the Captain is in a coma, and it is unknown as to when he will wake up. It's a miracle that Unohana could even stabilize him."

"This is truly grave news. Is there anything else to report?"

"Well, sir, you see, the Quincy in question has grown exponentially in power since our last fight, he is believed to be in serious training."

Yamamoto considered this for a moment. "He has killed one lieutenant and gravely injured another. We must kill him as soon as we can."

"Sir, reports indicate that he is of Captain-level strength. An assassination will not be easy."

"Send Kuchiki-taicho and Zaraki-taicho. They will eliminate this Quincy as thoroughly as possible.

Sosakibe was silent for all of a moment. "Yes sir."

* * *

><p><em>Mayuri's chamber<em>

"A second failure! And the subject nearly dies, at that too. How incompetent are these Shinigami?" Mayuri screeched in anger as he watched the monitor.

"Truly, if you want something done, you must do it yourself." With an indignant huff, the deranged scientist grabbed his Haori and his zanpakuto. He set out into the sun after that, eager to find, dissect, and research his prized specimen.

Maybe not in that order, either.

* * *

><p><em>Human World, three days later<em>

"Urahara. I think it's about time I told you about what happened in that clearing."

For once, the scientist seemed serious. "You turned into a hollow, Kurosaki-san."

"Exactly, now I want to know what's happening to me. My body's feeling empty, and I'm not sure if I can take it much longer."

Urahara only looked at him with sad, pitiful eyes. "Your body is that of a Quincy's. It's rejecting the hollow side of you... And it's killing you from the inside out. There isn't a way to stop this poisoning, unless you find and kill the hollow yourself."

Ichigo grinned. "Show me how, Hat-and-Clogs."

"You never cease to amaze me, Kurosaki-san." Urahara waved a fan in front of his mouth and led him to the training grounds. "Right this way, my reckless friend."

Urahara never realized how much of an understatement that saying was. Ichigo probably didn't either. For now, neither of them cared.

Bigger things were on the horizon, and they were moving fast.

* * *

><p><strong>AN**

**This chapter was written while listening to the five opening and ending songs of Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood. If you haven't watched the anime, watch it, and if you don't like the anime (you're a monster!), then at least get the soundtrack. It's great to listen to while cranking out a chapter, y'know?**


	8. Desperation

**A/N**

**JEEBUS! AN UPDATE!**

**Yeah, yeah, I'm sorry. I originally wanted this done in two days, but I ended up taking nine... No excuses. But really, I didn't know what to do with this, because right now, this story is at a crossroads. I didn't want to keep rehashing the 'Soul Society Invasion' Thing, because twice is enough. So... Don't get angry with what I'm about to show ya.**

**Oh, and in case you're wondering, I reworked some powers. Uryu's (I know it's spelled Uryuu, but I like my version better) Sanrei Glove can be taken on and off, so he doesn't wear a rubber glove in school all the time. Ichigo's reiatsu-blast thingie is still strong enough to blow off his own arm, so yeah, and he now prefers dual reishi-blades to his bow. You know how Ichigo is.**

**Ugh, I talk too much. START THE DAMN STORY ALREADY!**

* * *

><p><em>"You stab this doll-thing with one of those reishi blades or yours, and your hollow should manifest. Kisuke used it for Bankai training, but it should have the same purpose for you. You'll fight your hollow non-stop until you kill it, and only then will the corruption of your soul cease, and your dreams will be unhampered." The yellow-eyed cat informed.<em>

_ "Quit talkin', Yoruichi. Let's get started."_

_ "Wait you fool! I haven't told you everything yet!" The cat shouted._

_ "I don't care. Time isn't something I can afford to waste, right now." Ichigo had stabbed the doll even before he finished his sentence._

* * *

><p><em> Too close! <em>Ichigo watched as a crimson-streaked bolt of black energy tear through the air beside his head.

Another came rushing for him, and another, and another. Ichigo dodged the first two, but the third ripped a clean hole straight through his gut. With a choked cry of pain, the boy stumbled back and sputtered blood onto the ground under his feet. The desert sand of Urahara's training ground drank the blood like water, and Ichigo was almost mortified by this.

_"C'mon, Quincy. You'll need to do better than that!"_ The cackling, distorted voice of a black-eyed monster met Ichigo's ears.

The Quincy looked up to see his demon, the very thing that was causing so much torment for the past two days. In many ways, it was like him. Single-minded, vicious and terrifying to his enemies, and caustically sarcastic to those who weren't. The being held all his features, down to the last scar.

Except, in terms of color, there was none on this monstrous being.

Pale white skin met with pale white bone-plate armor, contrasted only by stretches of black fabric in between each armor plate. A thin line stretched across the hollow's face, looking reminiscent of a nose-guard, and it's hands were covered in a layer of thin black leather.

Armored, but not armed. The hollow seemed to rely on reishi and reiryoku to create weapons, much like Ichigo, except it had no need of a bow. It formed arrows barehanded, and it could easily cut the air apart with it's mind, bending reishi to do it's work. It was, in a way, the evolution of the Quincy as a whole.

"Shut up, you damned hollow!" Ichigo shouted and formed his blade-bow, charging before it was even fully formed.

The black-eyed monster grinned, and met Ichigo's charge. A thin curve of black energy rushed for the Quincy's head. Ichigo batted it aside carelessly with his bow, and charged forth. Energy met with energy as Ichigo clashed against his counterpart's hand, hitting an orb of energy that wasn't quite visible.

The hollow pushed back and sent Ichigo flying. The hollow sent a beam of compact energy rushing after his soaring form, quickly ripping a thick hole in the Quincy's shoulder. Ichigo's left arm fell to his side, useless, and he was unable to stop himself from crashing into a boulder. His mangled body fell to the ground, battered and bloody.

_"Get up, Quincy. This fight ain't over yet."_ The black-eyed monster cackled as it approached Ichigo's wounded form.

Ichigo got to his knees, a blade already forming in his right hand.

"I couldn't agree more, Hollow."

Ichigo charged forward, his eyes glowing a piercing blue with reiryoku. His blade flew up, straight for the hollow's arm, but the hollow met the attack with a thick downward crash of red reiryoku. Ichigo pushed against the huge red-black crescent, but his own power was quickly overwhelmed.

Searing bright light took his vision, and a ringing siren took his sound. Ichigo fell to the ground, bent and broken, but far from dead.

The hollow approached. The wave subsided.

The Quincy acted.

Ichigo reforged his blade into thick, melting blue armor that enveloped his right arm in energy. His skin and muscles were searing rapidly, so he had only one chance to do this.

_Die, hollow._ Ichigo's mind screamed as he slammed his fist forward.

His hand and arm were enhanced with the energy that only a Captain of the Gotei Thirteen could muster, and his blood was, at the time, more reishi than water. The Hollow's manic grin faded, and Ichigo punched a hole through the steel-hard armor that protected his chest.

Blood spilled form the new wound, but evaporated into a fine red vapor as soon as it made contact with the spiritual fire spilling from Ichigo's arm. The Hollow backed away, a gaping hole in it's chest and it's first injury of the fight.

Ichigo released the energy that had built up into a solid blast, creating a thin blue-white beam that ripped from his body like a _cero_. He swept the beam across his white counterpart's chest in an agonizingly slow arc, cutting into the Hollow's armor as a blowtorch would cut through steel. Black eyes widened in surprise, and the monster's body was stiff as it was battered by energy.

Energy exploded from Ichigo's arm in little bursts, opening pathways through his flesh and tearing his right arm asunder. The beam exploded in an unstable burst a half-moment later, leaving Ichigo's arm worthless and completely numb- Most of his nerves and muscles had been completely fried, leaving that arm paralyzed for the time being.

"Ah, crap!" Ichigo groaned as he tried his arm. "It always hurts when I use too much damned energy..."

The smoke cleared a moment later, revealing the hollow. A clear, deep gouge had been cut through it's abdomen, a clear and deadly injury that would have killed most Shinigami, and any hollow.

It was a bit difficult that this _thing_ seemed to be an amalgamation of both.

_"Ah, that stung a bit, Quincy. Too bad that I have instant regeneration, huh?"_ The hollow intoned maniacally as it's injuries mended themselves.

_"Now you've got two worthless arms and a shit-ton of injuries. Give up, Quincy, let me have your body while it's still usable!"_ Odd words coming from the hollow, considering that there were two clear-as-day holes in his gut and shoulder, injuries that one could see through with ease.

"You're an idiot... Hollow..." Ichigo panted, his arms hanging uselessly by his side. "I still have two legs, don't I?"

Ichigo charged, running forward on legs of steel and reishi. Mostly reishi.

"Blut Vene!" Ichigo screamed as he forced even_ more_ energy into his two working limbs.

A black bolt of energy flew for him. Ichigo jumped to his left and countered the attack with a vicious, energy-enhanced roundhouse kick. He reached the hollow a moment later, and his knee was flying up before either of them realized it.

Steel-like bone met with Reiryoku-imbued flesh, and both clashed for a short few seconds. Ichigo let loose a guttural roar, and grabbed his opponent by the neck. With his knee still embedded in his hollow's chest, he pulled himself up and slammed his other leg into his adversary's head. Both were sent flying by the impact- Ichigo flew forward because he lost his balance. The Hollow was launched upward by the sheer_ force_ of the strike.

Ichigo slammed into a cliff-face, and he spewed blood from his mouth.

_Knocked a few teeth out with that one._ Ichigo wasn't sure whether he meant himself or the hollow.

He got up and raised his leg, just in time to block a downward curve of black reiryoku. With a burst of reiatsu from his body, Ichigo dispelled the black crescent of power and ran forward to meet his enemy. He kicked once, slamming his fist into the armored carapace of the hollow in front of him, and then kicked twice. Ichigo leaped backward and attacked repeatedly.

With a series of alternating high-kicks, Ichigo crushed his hollow's identical face to smithereens, and his enemy was too close to do anything about it. Finally, with a powerful kick, the Hollow was sent flying away. The monster's armored body scraped against the rock and ground, but didn't come close to even scratching the armor's polished sheen.

The only marks on the bone armor were from his fist, and from the _cero_-like beam he had fired earlier. Other than them, he was invulnerable.

Ichigo could do little with only two working limbs, despite the fight he put up. With overwhelming strength, Ichigo pumped energy into his arms. They broke too often, he found. His mortal body couldn't cope with the energy he forced through it's blood vessels, through it's muscles. If he had to break it and reforge it, he'd do it gladly.

A swirling blue torrent of reiatsu enveloped Ichigo's body, shrouding him in blue and tearing the air around him apart.

The force behind these whirlwinds was enough to split the very atoms that made the air, creating a thin vacuum around Ichigo's body. Slowly, steadily, his arms began to regenerate. His bones mended, his skin and muscles regrew from scratch.

_"That looks a lot like Instant Regeneration, Quincy."_ The hollow said, looking more amused than ever.

"My friend once told me the exact same thing, Hollow." Ichigo looked up, and his fiery brown eyes were alight with rage.

He outstretched both his regenerated limbs, and noted that they were both glowing with faint blue lines. Reishi flowed unbidden through him, creating a heat that baked off of him at just under seven hundred degrees. If his body wasn't so heavily compacted with reiryoku, he would have burned to death from the inside.

Twin blades, long, thin, and decidedly western, formed in his hands. They were a searing blue, and were filled with barely suppressed energy. Both of Ichigo's Bangles were glowing with enough heat to burn through the sleeves they were hidden under. White flames burst from Ichigo's Quincy garb, and his trench coat, stained as it already was, felt like a sheathe of molten lead.

"Tell you what Hollow, how 'bout I finish this fast, and then go to that cafe down the street? I'm in the mood for Sushi." Ichigo said, his voice growing more confident by the second.

_"Don't be so sure of yourself, King. I won't die that easily!"_ The hollow screeched as it charged forward.

Ichigo remained stoic, even as the Hollow flew towards him with an energy-filled hand. The Quincy flew both his blades up, attacking the Hollow's right arm in tandem. The searing blue of his blades severed the arm entirely, slicing open the thick bone plating as it went.

The Quincy followed up with a second strike, ripping open the Hollow's chest, right across it's broad chest cavity. Ichigo severed the creature's left arm, and stabbed both his blades into his adversary's body. He formed another pair, and did the same, this time ripping twin holes in the monster's lower belly.

"DIE!" Ichigo screamed as he brought a third pair of blades down.

The hollow's gut was ripped open, and Ichigo jumped back, panting. The Hollow was impaled on six reishi blades, and showing no signs of getting up.

"Shatter." Ichigo murmured.

The six blades exploded inside the hollow's body with huge amounts of force. Half of the monster's body disintegrated almost instantaneously, the other half only barely being spared by the Hollow's armor. The blast created a crater underneath the hollow, and sent sprays of blood into the air. A smoke screen was thrown up, obscuring Ichigo's sight.

The Quincy fell to his knees, panting as he struggled to regain his breath. The heat coming from his body was enormous, and was starting to eat away at his insides. He had exhausted his reserves too much today, and he was paying for it.

The smoke cleared a moment later, and Ichigo walked forward. He walked until he came to the edge of the crater, and he looked down.

There beneath him, the hollow was broken and destroyed, with only an upper torso, head, and right arm remaining. The monster grinned, and white light began to eat at the shattered edges of it's body. Even as the monster's spiritual body disintegrated and reentered Ichigo's own soul, an expression could be seen on the monster's face.

To Ichigo, that expression was the most satisfied, absurdly pleased expression he had ever seen in his life.

* * *

><p>Sleep came quickly for Ichigo that night, but not for Rukia.<p>

The Shinigami was deep in thought, wondering why Yamamoto hadn't sent the next assassination team yet. She knew the Head-Captain, not personally of course, but his reputation preceded him. The man should have sent someone after Ichigo by now, Renji and Izuru notwithstanding, and they should have been here ages ago.

The fact that they weren't did nothing to alleviate her worries. If anything, it made her feel worse. What if the Soul Society was sending Captain-Class fighters to eliminate her one-and-only friend. What if they were planning on sending the Onmitsukido to kill the boy in his sleep. What if-

"Rukia, you're thinkin' out loud again. Go to bed, Midget." Ichigo's aggravated, sleep-filled voice reached her closet. She shut her mouth quickly, after that.

Or so she attempted, anyway.

Her mind kept running backwards and forwards, thinking new things, and revisiting old topics. Key among them was Ichigo's training. The infuriating Strawberry had told her nothing of importance, not why he was training, nor why it had to be so secretive. If she wasn't such a merciful person, she would have crushed his foot _twice_ as much as she was now.

"Hey, Ichigo?" Rukia asked, quite daintily in her opinion.

"I told you to get to bed, Midget. I have to talk to Hat-and-Clogs tomorrow."

Rukia paused as she considered what this meant.

"Is he supervising your training?"

"Yes. Now go to sleep, Midget. I'm damn tired."

"What kind of training is it, Ichigo? You always come home bloody, and your family is worried. Not to mention you dropped out of your academy, and your friends come by every day to find you're not home. You really should tell some-"

"Shut up, Midget!" Ichigo yelled. "Let me sleep, for God's sake."

"Dammit, Ichigo, I won't quiet down until you tell me!" Rukia shouted back. She clasped the handle to her closet door, prepared to jump out and knock some sense into the Quincy if need be.

"Shut. Up." Ichigo growled.

"No!"

The two's voices were gradually getting louder. It wouldn't be long before Yuzu or Karin, or God forbid, Isshin came barreling in.

Rukia flung the closet door open and rushed toward the Quincy. A flying kick was already in progress before she had even touched the ground. Ichigo, hardened by years of training from his father, grabbed her foot and slammed her onto his bed.

"Dammit, Rukia, now I'll never get to sleep."

With an indignant huff, Rukia sat up.

"Just tell me what the hell you've been doing at Urahara's shop, Idiot."

Ichigo sighed. "Training, I'm not lying about that much."

"Just... Just tell me more, please, Ichigo."

Silence descended, and both the Shinigami and the Quincy were struggling for words to say.

"I... I can't. I'm sorry, Rukia."

"Dammit, Ichigo, just tell me."

That gave Ichigo pause. Right about now, Ichigo was reminded of the time he and Momo got into an argument about this... That hadn't ended well, and even though the situation was reversed, nothing good would come of denying her all the time.

"It's... It's hollow training. Six days ago, when I went to meet that Shinigami assassination team... I died. I turned into a soul, but I managed to resist death. But even then, I couldn't return to my body, and the Shinigami was coming to finish me off, and I couldn't do anything about it..."

Ichigo fell silent for a moment.

"So I pulled out my Chain of Fate. As a result, I became something that wasn't quite human, and not quite hollow. I don't know why I'm alive, or if what I did was even possible, but it happened. There was a hollow in my soul, and it was created by that. Now it's trying to take over and kill me, so Hat-and-Clogs is helping me kill it... Or at least, hold it off."

Rukia's eyes widened. Had he really pulled his Chain out? And... He had died, he said it himself. Did that mean that right now, Ichigo's body was more akin to a Gigai, and he was a spirit residing inside it?

"If you weren't listening Rukia, I'll be very offended." Ichigo remarked, sarcasm dripping from his tone.

"I... I just don't know what to say..." Rukia whispered, deeply confused.

"Good. Get to bed, Midget, I gotta wake up bright and early tomorrow. Damned Hat-and-Clogs gets really mad if I don't get there by five o'clock." Ichigo pulled his covers over his head, and Rukia retreated to her closet.

Rukia closed the doors and fell onto her bed, but she didn't sleep, not even a wink. Deep in thought and broiling in guilt, she was silent the entire night.

* * *

><p>"Urahara." Ichigo said as he walked through the doors of the candy shop.<p>

"Kurosaki-san." Was the pale shopkeeper's reply.

"I killed him... I killed that hollow bastard."

Kisuke looked utterly unfazed by this. Instead, he simply took in a draft of tea. "Why aren't you happy about this, Kurosaki?" Was his reply at long last.

"I still hear him, Kisuke. That yellow-eyed freak is still laughing, and I don't like it... If I don't get that voice out soon..." Ichigo paused. "You said that all I had to do was kill him, and then he'd be gone for good!" He shouted, unaware of his rising fury.

"This was... Unexpected, I'll admit. I just don't know what to do right now..." Urahara trailed off.

Ichigo stood stoically, his hands in his pocket and the light at his back. Even then, the hollow was relishing this exchange, this display of fury and anger.

"Just tell me you can help me... Just please, I need to get stronger, and this bastard is only distracting me from that. I have a life to live, and friends to protect..."

Urahara, despite being as intelligent and manipulative as he was, said something incredibly stupid and tactless just a moment later.

"Technically, Kurosaki-san, you're dead. When you pulled out your Chain of Fate, you killed yourself." The shopkeeper sounded just a little bit too smug.

That hit Ichigo below the belt. Hit him like a freight train, really? Dead... dead and hollow, was that him? Was that his life?

"Kisuke. Can you or can you not help me?"

"I don't know, Ichigo. I have some friends who might be able to help but... You're a human. They're not." Urahara paused, before adding a second part. "I don't even know if they _can_ help you." Urahara finished with uncharacteristic levels of nervousness.

Ichigo stalked off, sullen and depressed. He was alone in this, and that was okay. The only problems he saw at the moment was the Soul Society, and oddly enough, his own friends. He didn't need them involved, let alone hurt by this.

"On my own, huh?" Ichigo murmured as he walked away. "Gonna be one hell of a goodbye." His voice just barely above a whisper, he faded from sight, and into the intense sunlight.

Urahara sat still. He had made a huge mistake, several mistakes actually. He had drained whatever hope this boy might have had, and forced him to leave. Very rarely did this happen, but it did. Long ago, Kisuke had a Master Plan for Ichigo, even boiling it down to a script. That had been ruined when he became a Quincy. It had been further ruined when he became part hollow. What he had said... That was improvisation, not a part of anything he had per-meditated.

Kisuke hated improvising, hated it for all his worth.

* * *

><p>"Ichigo!" A furious, feminine voice assaulted the teen's head. He turned around, and realized that there was a foot flying for his head.<p>

He moved to block the attack, but realized that he would be just a millisecond too slow in blocking the strike. The rubber-clad heel slammed into his face, and Ichigo was thrown back by the impact, and into a nearby concrete wall.

Pain intermingled with fury, and Ichigo looked up at his enemy with the most haunting, terrifying face he had ever managed...

...Then he realized it was just Tatsuki.

"Oh, Tatsuki, you got me off guard." Ichigo deadpanned, an amused smirk on his face.

"What the hell, Ichigo!? First you drop out of the damn school, then you nearly get yourself killed!" Tatsuki saw the light of confusion on Ichigo's face, and sighed. "Don't tell me you _forgot_?!" She nearly screamed at him. "People saw you walk out of the forest seven days ago, covered in blood and with tattered clothes. Now you're looking as healthy as ever, what the hell is happening?!" Tatsuki's enraged voice rose a few decibels as she screamed.

"I... I'm sorry, Tatsuki. There's a lot going on in my life, right now... I can't explain."

"There shouldn't be enough for you to nearly get killed on a regular basis! This isn't the first time you've done this either, is it? I heard rumors saying that you walked out of the _same_ forest a month ago, looking blood-splattered and burnt! And then even before that, Keigo saw you running around a block, and he spied on you for a week! You ran around, nonstop, for a _WEEK!_"

Ichigo was speechless. And here he'd thought no one had noticed. It was naive of him to even entertain the idea.

"Tatsuki, I-"

"Why won't you tell me, Ichigo? We're friends, aren't we?" Tatsuki looked at him with hurt-filled, indignant eyes. "Aren't we?"

"I... I just can't, Tatsuki. For your safety, I can't tell you."

"Ichigo. You know I can take care of myself... Just... Just tell me, please."

"I can't Tatsuki. I'm sorry." Ichigo broke away and walked off, leaving a betrayed, hurt girl behind him.

_We're friends, aren't we?_ Tatsuki thought sullenly as Ichigo's orange head disappeared from view.

The girl was motionless, even as her friend disappeared from view. Yet, even as a cold emotion gripped her heart, and vile hatred sank into her mind, she knew she wouldn't take this lying down. That thought was predominant over her muddled thoughts, and she couldn't agree more. With an angry huff, she took off, following after Ichigo's faint presence, as she sometimes did with Orihime.

She ran, honing in on that signal, faint as it was, as if the devil were behind her. As she moved, she realized that the signal was getting weaker, and fading rapidly. It was as if Ichigo was also running, except he was moving twice as fast as her. Odd, considering she was running at just under ten miles an hour. Nevertheless, she increased her pace and moved in.

The faint signature that his presence gave off strengthened, and Tatsuki inwardly rejoiced. She chased further and further, and eventually realized that Ichigo wasn't moving at all. Perhaps he'd stopped to rest or something.

A likely scenario, maybe he'd ran so fast to clear his head, and now he was recovering.

A devilish grin crossed her face, and she increased her pace. Ichigo wasn't that far ahead, and with the pace she was setting, she would be on him in no time. Then she could kick a bit of sense into his thick skull.

Tatsuki rounded the corner, and spotted Ichigo's bright orange head.

Splattered with blood, and connected to a body covered in sweat and dust, as well as a fair amount of blood and viscera.

If Tatsuki didn't know better, she would have mistaken the deep, rough, powerful pressure coming off his body for wind. Yet, having lived with a sensation much like that for all her life, it was unmistakable. It was a powerful thing, strong and malevolent, and with a cutting edge that seemed to rip into her core.

It was definitely... unlike the boy she thought she knew, that was certain. She saw Ichigo swipe his hands downward, creating a faint, almost transparent blue arc of... Electricity?... As it flew down. A spray of red blood erupted from thin air, and Ichigo unclenched his fists. The aura of strength and rage immediately calmed down, and Ichigo cleaned off his uniform with a glowing white orb that seemed to dissipate the black-red blood within fractions of a moment.

He walked off in the direction opposite Tatsuki a moment later, clean and looking only slightly disheveled despite the events that had transpired just mere moments ago. Ichigo brushed himself off, looking bored and stoic as he walked with his left hand in his pocket.

He looked... he looked like Ichigo, like the Ichigo she had known before he had gotten mixed in with Uryu, like the Ichigo who used to go to the dojo and cry when she beat him into dust. It was weird to see such a peaceful expression on his face, especially when that same expression was one that had eluded him for, as far as she knew, almost seven years.

Tatsuki cleared her head and ran after him, yelling his name. Ichigo turned to face her, and froze in his tracks. His eyes grew slightly wide, and like a deer in headlights, he refused to move.

"Tatsuki..." Ichigo began.

"Why? Why can't you tell me what's going on? Why are you leaving me in the dark all the time?"

"Because you're my friend... If you got hurt, or killed over this... Over my own problem, I don't know what I would do."

"I hate it. I hate it when you're like this, I hate it when you get hurt, I HATE IT!" Tatsuki practically screamed at him.

Fury, hatred, and a small amount of... Fear?... Dripped from her voice, sounding distinctly unlike her. Had Ichigo really been the one to drive Tatsuki Arisawa to this? Had he been the one to make her so angry?

"I'm sorry, Tatsuki." Ichigo whispered, his voice only barely carrying to her ears.

He turned to leave.

She turned to stop him.

Then, he vanished, his already-dim presence fading into nothing. Tatsuki blinked, and her frown deepened to confusion.

_Ichigo._

* * *

><p><em>3 hours later<em>

"There you are, Kurosaki. I haven't heard from you in weeks." Uryu's exasperated voice filled the empty streets of lower Karakura.

"Ishida. You want somethin'?"

"Yeah, I do. You still haven't told me what you've been doing with that blond-haired bastard. I have to admit, it's making me a bit angry." Ichigo winced at Uryu's slightly rigid tone.

"I've said it before and I'll say it again-"

"Work that stick outta my ass, right?" Uryu deadpanned, looking stoic as ever. "Get new material, Kurosaki."

Ichigo clammed up and walked ahead, no direction in mind. He liked this, just simply walking about the streets and exploring the city. Sitting still had never been easy for him, and if he was honest, he was glad that he had dropped out. Those six hours he got back were hard to fill at first, but Ichigo soon learned to explore, to train, and to wander when he had free time.

Uryu followed after him, his pace quickening to match Ichigo's. Right now, questions were on his mind, questions that threatened to burst through his skull with every moment they went unanswered. Ichigo was usually an open book, reporting anything and everything he could simply because he wanted to. Now, he was silent and unresponsive.

Ichigo stopped for a moment, looking dull and listless.

"Do you hear that, Uryu? Do you hear the laughing hollow?"

Uryu was caught off guard. There was no sound to be heard, and who had ever heard of a laughing hollow?

Ichigo turned to face him, and his eyes were rapidly being overtaken by a black expanse.

"I-Ichigo!" Uryu bounded forward, his hand outstretched.

"Do you hear it, Uryu!" Ichigo, or hollow-Ichigo, as the case may be, threw his head back and screamed out maniacal laughter. Uryu's eyes were drawn to the white stretch of bone forming on his face, seemingly of it's own volition.

"Ichigo!" Uryu's bow was in his hands, thrumming with panicky energy.

Suddenly, the laughter stopped. Ichigo threw a hand forward and slammed it into his face, shattering through barely-formed bone plating. The black sea faded from his eyes immediately, and Ichigo fell to his knees, gasping.

"Dammit... He's gotten this strong already..." Ichigo panted, not looking up at his bewildered friend.

"Tell me what's happening Ichigo. This isn't normal, even for you."

The orange-haired teen looked up at him, a solemn, unreadable smile on his face.

"You can't help me, Uryu. It's best if you just stay away." Ichigo's cheeky grin was on his face, but it never reached his eyes.

Of course, Uryu was twice as stubborn as Ichigo, and just as loyal too. "Get back here, Kurosaki. We're not done talking."

"My God, you're too damned stubborn. Bye, I'll be gone for awhile, and I don't know if I'll return." Before Uryu could protest, or even inquire, Ichigo had vanished with the fastest burst of _hirenkyaku_ either of them had ever seen.

"You frustrate me, Kurosaki." Uryu whispered to himself as he turned away and walked home.

He didn't know what the hell was going on, but he'd change it. If it took a little bit of force, then so be it. Hell, he would've been glad to get a decent fight in. He didn't want to sound like Ichigo, but he hadn't had a decent fight since he nearly got disemboweled by that Hitsugaya character.

_It's probably not smart to think that, huh?_

Uryu stuffed his hands in his pockets and walked off, feeling oddly determined. He would beat this gloom out of Ichigo Kurosaki... Or he would kill the body-snatcher who had stolen Kurosaki's body, because right now, Ichigo didn't seem very Ichigo.

Uryu's indifferent and thought-filled stride came to a halt. A figure stepped into his path, black spiky hair waving in the breeze. Instinctively, the Quincy clenched his fists, ready to bring down yet another stupid delinquent trying to prove his worth. The figure stepped forward, Uryu stepped back.

"Uryu. What's with Ichigo?" Tatsuki's distinctive voice reached the Quincy, and he immediately dropped his defenses.

"I don't know. He's acting strange, even for him." Was Uryu's concerned response.

"He brushed me off. He's never done that before, not ever." She replied, unsure of what to say.

Uryu nodded and looked off, honing in on Ichigo's rapidly fading reiatsu signature. Where he was going, he was unsure. Yet, if there was one thing he did know, he'd be following him in due time. Ichigo thought he could run away, but that was near impossible. He had a strange brand of charisma, one that drew in followers that were loyal to a fault, never leaving, even when he wanted them to. Hell, he was sure that even a lowly Shinigami such as Rukia would follow him into hell if he decided to have a visit.

"Ichigo, you idiot. You can't drop your friends like you do your school. C'mon, Arisawa. We're going after him."

Tatsuki nodded, and followed Uryu's brisk run as they weaved through the city. The pace was fast, almost panicky in their strides and movements. Things were haywire, that was for sure. Uryu came to a stretch of field, and stopped short for a moment. He honed in on Ichigo's reiatsu, and for once was glad that it's reserves were so endless.

Ichigo suppressed his power to a huge degree, almost ninety-five percent, actually, but Uryu was glad that the remaining five was as distinct and powerful as it was. At the moment, however, that signature was rapidly fading, even faster than before.

"My God... He's left Karakura." Uryu intoned, inwardly panicking.

"What?!" Tatsuki shouted. "You need to chase him!"

"Arisawa. He's moving at over eighty miles an hour. He's in a car, or something." A blatant lie on both fronts. Ichigo was simply hopping from location to location with his _hirenkyaku_, and he was moving at just under four-hundred miles a _second_. He would have been faster had the range of his abilities been higher.

"Then chase him. Don't think I don't know what you can do, Uryu, Keigo and I have been watching you guys. Do that weird teleportation thing that you seem so proud of, and chase him down for Christ's sake!"

Uryu was stunned into silence. So she knew. That was unexpected. Yet, she didn't seem curious or even hurt at the secret. He really should have known better, Ichigo may not have been the most social person, but he had friends, and those friends likely thought it strange that he had dropped out. He was the second best student in the school, after all.

"What the hell are you doing standing around, get moving!" Tatsuki shouted, knocking away Uryu's indecisiveness.

He instantly vanished away from sight, not caring of passerby or Tatsuki's venomous glare. Ichigo was leaving, and that was all that mattered. Somewhere along the way, he saw Rukia finish off a wounded hollow, and stopped for a moment to speak to her.

"Shinigami. Ichigo's leaving town, we have to stop him." Uryu's breathless tone seemed out of place for his perfectly conditioned body.

"What? That damned Strawberry... You're right, let's go." Rukia took off too, abandoning her hollow duties for the sheer sake of one man.

The town wasn't without protection, however. Masaki was still out there, patrolling, and Kisuke was always around if a Menos were to appear, however unlikely that could be. Even if all that did was ease Uryu's conscience, it was a nice thought that he wasn't leaving the town as hollow prey.

* * *

><p>Just a day after Ichigo left and Uryu and Rukia took off after him, shoji doors opened in the sky. Two figures stepped out, one tall, bulky, scarred, and imposing. The other refined and callous, looking over the town with cold disdain.<p>

"Kurosaki Ichigo. We will find you." Byakuya's cold voice echoed through the town.

"He beat Ikkaku, this should be fun, don't you think?" Zaraki, insane as ever, spoke with a maniacal edge to his voice.

Byakuya stood still and honed in on whatever reiatsu signatures he could find. Oddly enough, there were two, and they bore the distinct edge of the Quincy. But they weren't the target, and it seemed that the one they were sent here to kill was suppressing his energy to a surprising degree.

Frustrating, but manageable.

More than manageable, actually.

* * *

><p><strong>Ichigo's skipping town, eh? To be honest, I actually didn't expect this. At first, I wanted Ichigo to get captured and experimented on, but then I changed my mind. Don't ask where I'm going with this, my writing is spontaneous and unplanned, so I have no idea what'll happen. As if life is agreeing with me, my plan of Ichigo-experimentation never came to fruition, so y'know, even <em>life<em> hates planning.**

**Leave a review, please and thanks. Or don't, it's your choice. But if you_ don't_ review, I know you hate Quincies and are racist. So, _are_ you a racist?**

**Ha, negative reinforcement, that's what my Dad always taught me!**


	9. Wander

**A/N**

**Hey, I've got 98 followers, so close to 100! I feel as if I should thank you guys for the massive amounts of support you've given me, and I don't think I could ever repay you. Seriously, thanks, for every review, every follow, every time you read these chapters... It's just great.**

**Anyway, I decided to experiment on this chapter. I just pulled off something that should, by my standards, be impossible! Read on and find out, why don't you. (I know, I'm evil)**

* * *

><p>"Damn you Kisuke, where's my son!?" A woman's screaming voice echoed through the Urahara Shoten.<p>

"I don't know, Masaki-chan, he left three days ago." Kisuke attempted to placate her, but ended up sounding condescending instead.

"I know you're lying to me! Where the hell is he?!" Her voice reached an ear-splitting, soul-rending crescendo.

"Please, Masaki-chan, I really don't know!" Urahara yelped in mock submission. Unfortunately, now was not the correct time for jokes, and he really should have known that.

Masaki pulled her arm back and clenched her fist, as if to punch the shopkeeper. The rage in her eyes danced like a fire, and her fierce gaze could melt a glacier. Then, she pulled her fist back and softened her face.

"Okay. I'm going after him." She spoke, resolute and fierce.

"Wait, Masaki-chan, you can't go after him!"

The woman turned back, her calm determination replaced with rage once more.

"Why not?!"

"Because you're family still needs you." Kisuke said.

_And you need to protect the town from hollows._ He added in his mind.

"My _family_ needs Ichigo back!"

"Ichigo will come back on his own terms, but right now, you have two confused and sad daughters, you can't leave them behind to chase your son? Can you?"

Masaki's hand was flying before she even realized it. Kisuke's mouth was thrashed and bloody in a split second, an angry red splotch of crimson sprayed from where she slapped him.

"Kisuke. If you try to browbeat me into staying here, _I will kill you._" Her voice became dangerously low, almost husky too.

"Masaki-chan, you know you need to stay..." Urahara's voice trailed off.

The woman's fist clenched yet again, and her fiery glare was back on Kisuke in an instant. Reishi drew inwards to her, seemingly gravitating to her right wrist. An explosive swirl of energy was forming, and just as it seemed she might _actually_ kill him, her shoulders slumped. Her fists unclenched and the reishi ball dissipated.

"I know, Kisuke. I know. Ichigo's gonna come back home. I guess I just have to wait, don't I?"

Kisuke remained silent, thinking of everything and nothing all at once.

For awhile, Masaki hung around the room, about as talkative as a mouse. She sat at the table, quietly sipping at the tea that Kisuke had provided, and saying nothing. Two minutes later, anxiety got the better of her, and she walked out without so much as a goodbye.

Both had many thoughts on their respective minds. Masaki worried over her son, and regretted surviving that cursed night seven years ago. Perhaps if she had died then, Ichigo wouldn't have ever have to become what he was today, and could have lived a normal, happy life.

Kisuke thought of his dashed plans, and how they would have affected the world. Aizen was still in his budding stage, but his machinations would come to a head in just a short few months. Shinji wouldn't be happy about this, the bastard's known about Ichigo ever since he hollowfied, and had been itching to meet him. Now that he was gone, Shinji would be pissed, and Ichigo was in serious danger of turning into a hollow, dying, or being hunted down by the Onmitsukido. Perhaps all three?

In any case, this situation was deteriorating rapidly. If Ichigo died, who would take his place? Surely the Gotei Thirteen couldn't; they had all seen Aizen's Shikai. The vizards were also out of the picture, half of them had seen Aizen's Shikai as well, and the other half couldn't possibly stand up to him. Yoruichi, Tessai, and himself also had no chance. Not only had they languished away in the past one hundred years, but each of them were also vulnerable to that horrible Shikai of Aizen's.

In short, it was Aizen's damned zanpakuto that was such a problem, not the man himself. If not for Kyoka Suigetsu, then Aizen would be just another delusional madman, not a warrior capable of ripping apart half the spiritual world with one flick of a blade.

Ichigo was gone and in danger of death. There were three Captains of the Gotei Thirteen out for blood and looking for him. Half of Karakura's defensive force had left in order to search for the boy, and the vizards were gonna be pissed.

A conundrum indeed.

* * *

><p>"<em>You imbeciles!<em> You let him _go_!" Mayuri's enraged, insane voice made even Kenpachi visibly stiffen.

"His reiatsu was gone when we arrived. Perhaps he fled just before we came here." Byakuya stated matter-of-factly.

"I don't care! Find him now, and maybe I won't dissect you!" Mayuri really was more furious than he should have been, but he felt very indignant at the loss of his subject, especially when it was so damned close.

"Our orders were to get rid of Kurosaki. If he has left the area, then we shall head back." Byakuya's cold demeanor really was a foil to Zaraki's furious, bloodthirsty personality. It was odd how a noble could befriend a savage, but stranger things have happened in the Gotei Thirteen.

"Fools! Just because he has left the area, doesn't mean he won't come back, go find him now!" Mayuri screeched maniacally.

The two were in the middle of a crowded street, throngs of humans just under their feet as they hovered above them. Still, Ichigo's errant reiatsu, alongside hugely elevated amounts of latent reishi had made quite a few humans spiritually aware. Four people had stepped away from the stream of traffic to gawk openly at the three hovering strangers.

Byakuya seemed to consider this for a moment.

"Perhaps you are correct, Kurotsuchi-Taichou. Zaraki-Taichou and I shall search for him within a forty mile radius of this settlement."

"We will?" Kenpachi asked confusedly. "Why the hell am I going to do that?"

"Never mind the brute, Kuchiki-Taichou. Just go find Kurosaki soon." Mayuri, now notably more amicable, said.

"I'm hungry, Kuchiki, and this human-world crap won't satisfy me. I'm goin' home." Zaraki stabbed his zanpakuto into the air with more force than strictly necessary. The shoji doors opened immediately.

Down below, the situation was getting more intense. The group of gawking humans had swelled from four to seven, and the traffic stream had stopped to follow their gazes. Some pedestrians gave the groups curious glances and moved on, others swore that they too could see strange shadows, and some even went to join the group. Speech had stopped, save for the occasional whispered phrase, and some were filming the exchange with their cameras. Unfortunately for them, their cameras picked up nothing but the blue sky.

The hulking man stepped into the white glow, and as Kuchiki went forward to stop him, Mayuri blocked the path with his sheathed blade.

"You have work to do, Kuchiki-Taichou. Don't mind the brute, you and I shall search for the Quincy."

Byakuya pulled in breath, and looked the yellow-eyed madman in the eye. "You are correct, let us begin the search for Kurosaki."

Mayuri grinned. "I knew you were a sensible one, Kuchiki-Taichou."

Both of them vanished, Byakuya headed north, Mayuri south, and the gawking humans below witnessed it all.

Among these gawkers, was a girl with short, unkempt black hair. Dressed in a white gi that she always found constricting, Tatsuki shuddered.

"Ichigo, what the hell have you gotten into?" She asked, breaking the silence, if only slightly.

The rest of the gawking humans were wondering what the hell had happened, and after seeing that they weren't alone, if it was a mass hallucination of sorts. In many ways, they were correct, and in many other ways, they were wrong. Very wrong.

* * *

><p><em>Twelve days later<em>

Rukia wandered listlessly through Osaka, unsure of where she was going, or where. Uryu had left days ago, headed to Kyoto. Their search had been endless, and every lead they found only seemed to bring them further away from the goal. Twice, various people had spotted an orange-haired teenager who looked far too depressed for his age, and both times they had revealed nothing at all. The lack of leads and/or evidence to supplement them could be called, even at the best of times, infuriating.

In many ways, Rukia could have regretted ever meeting Ichigo. Meeting him had turned her down a path of no-return. Her home was revoked from her, she had nearly been killed by an enraged Captain who had thought her a murderer, and she was now searching endlessly through the miserable slums of a town that should have been destroyed long ago. Yet, she didn't regret it, not at all. There was no explaining it, but she was feeling happy.

_Perhaps happy isn't the word I'm looking for._ She thought glumly.

Satisfied? No, that didn't quite fit either. Fulfilled? Close, but once again, no cigar. Well, it was definitely impossible to explain, but despite the search she was on, she felt good. Maybe it was because now she had a friend worthy enough to warrant a search, or maybe it was because life was no longer depressingly monotonous, but it felt good.

She rounded a corner, and spotted nothing more than throngs of more humans, rushing to their homes and occasionally glancing at a sky pregnant with rain. That reminded Rukia of her water situation. Her supply was running low, and human-world water lacked the flow of reiryoku that the Soul Society's had; if she tried to drink or eat anything originating from here, it would pass through her body without offering any nourishment whatsoever. She'd have to return to Karakura, but even with her _shunpo_ it was a two day trip.

She felt close, very close, and she was hesitant to turn back. For some reason, Osaka had a bit more reishi in the air than normal, and that indicated a Quincy or Shinigami at work. Being such a large city indicated the need for one of the two, and while the odds were invariably stacked on the latter, Rukia couldn't help but feel hopeful at even the _slightest_ chance of Ichigo being here.

A hollow roared in the distance, knocking away Rukia's thoughts. Her blade was unsheathed in an instant, and she flew towards the source of the disturbance. She honed in on the hollow like a missile, her haywire emotions gone from her head, raw, callous calculation replacing them. Times like these, Rukia felt herself becoming more and more like her well-despised brother.

The hollow came into view, large and powerful. It's deadly jaws had already ripped a plus in half, and the frantic middle-aged soul was crawling away. As the man's entrails followed his path, Rukia swam into his view. He frantically screamed a plea for help, even for her to kill him and _end the pain_.

Rukia Konso'd the plus, sending it on to a hellish afterlife, and charged at the hollow who had perpetrated the act. It was a large, spider-like thing. It's jaws filled with fangs that were glistening with blood and adorned with viscera.

_Why the hell are all these hollows animal-like, or insect-like?_ Rukia thought absurdly, despite the situation.

"You hollows really aren't all that creative in your appearances, are you?" She asked rhetorically as she charged the monster.

It was weak. Very weak. Within moments, it's upper body was disintegrating a away, and it's lower body was slumped and dead, following the actions of it's other half moments after it faded. What was left behind was a huge pool of blood, more blood than even ten humans together could have created.

Rukia pooled her reiatsu into her hand, creating a kido-like orb. Ichigo had taught her a trick to get rid of hollow blood easily. High reiatsu concentrations dispersed spiritual particles into reishi, and hollow blood was indeed spiritual. The use of a reiatsu-orb could easily clean off a uniform, destroy the evidence of a job well-done, or even rip apart the bodies of enemies. With this in mind, Rukia cleaned off the stain, and walked away, thirsty, hungry, and most of all, dead tired.

Even these frequent fights did little to quell a growing fatigue. She desperately wanted to find Ichigo, if only to finally get a chance to sleep. Somehow, when she tried to sleep at night, she couldn't. It was as if her body couldn't bear to move by the end of each day, yet, her mind was adamant on leaving her awake.

"Why don't you just go back to Karakura, Ichigo. It's kinda boring without that stupid head of yours around." She muttered to herself.

Listlessly, she vanished, headed back to Ichigo's home town on legs that felt like lead. She needed water, there was no skirting around that, and Kisuke probably had some. She just hoped it wasn't drugged, or something.

* * *

><p><em>Kyoto, seven hours later<em>

The looming towers of the city loomed over the horizon, like tall warriors fighting against the spread of daylight. Uryu was unimpressed.

"I really am starting to hate cities." The Quincy thought aloud as he looked out the window of the car.

"Don't like cities, huh? I can respect that." A voice from his right reminded Uryu that he wasn't alone.

"This is the third one I've seen, and personally, I prefer my small town." Uryu responded, with only a token response. He spoke for politeness' sake and nothing more.

The stranger- Daiki?- responded with a chuckle. "Yeah, I understand. I'm from a little place not too far from here, Naruki, it's a nice town. A little quiet though."

"Really? I live in the town right next to it, Karakura."

Daiki gave a sound of confusion. "You're a long way from home. The reason must be real important, huh?"

"Yeah, I suppose it is. A friend of mine ran off awhile back, and I'm looking up and down so I can find him and knock some sense into his stupid head." The words were out of Uryu's mouth before he could take them back.

Daiki's voice rose from that stilted talking-out-of-politeness tone that Uryu recognized so well, and into a tone that seemed to show a bit of respect.

"A friend, huh? Is he really that important?"

"Yes, I suppose he is. Ichigo's a dumbass, but he's saved my life for times than I could count. I guess I'm going after him because I don't like owing anyone any kind of debt. If he's saved my sorry head, I should at least knock some sense into his." Uryu was saying too much. He realized that ever since he said that he came from Karakura, but dammit, he had been searching for almost thirteen days and he was in a bad mood.

Daiki's tone lightened somewhat. "Ichigo... Wait, Ichigo Kurosaki?"

Uryu's eyes widened slightly. "Yeah, do you know him?"

"That guy. He saved my wife from some... Well, let's just call it a giant monster thing. He just... Beat it down with a bat until it died, I guess. He didn't say where he was going, he just did some spell-thing and healed my wife's wounds, just like that. I didn't know what was going on, but that guy saved Haruko, so I owe him a lot."

"You... You can see them?" Uryu asked, astonished.

"Yeah, I can. Been seeing em' ever since I was born, most of the time I just see shadows or outlines, but this time, that ugly bastard was right up in my face. Ichigo, he just comes in with a bat and beats it to death like he's done it a thousand times. It was frightening at first, but then he healed my wife's wound and stopped her from bleeding to death. Like I said, I owe him a lot, so if there's anything I can do to help you, just tell me."

_Ichigo... Why didn't you use your bow? Were you afraid of releasing your reiatsu? And when did you learn healing spells... There's a lot we need to talk about, huh?_

"No, that'll be fine. And you're sure he didn't say where he was going?"

"Positive." Daiki responded, seeming just a little downcast.

Uryu averted his eyes back to the windshield, and noted that the skyline of Kyoto was much closer now. They'd be entering town very soon now, but Uryu didn't feel like going in as much as before.

"What direction was he headed?" Uryu asked bluntly.

"North, I think. That's the direction he was walking towards, anyway."

Uryu cracked a grin. "Thanks for the info. I need to get out now, I think I know where he's headed."

"Sure thing." Daiki pulled to the side of the road and unlocked the door. Uryu thanked him again, and promptly sprinted north, running furiously towards a familiar place. A place both of them had been plenty of times.

More specifically, he was headed to Soken's old campground.

* * *

><p>Seven years ago, Soken had given the deed to his old campground over to his son as a final gift. In all that time, he had done nothing with the place, leaving it to slowly languish away over the years. When Ichigo arrived at the site, he was disgusted with the overflow of mud, the excess of weeds, and the slowly encroaching river that ate away at the river bank with surprising ease. In fact, given a few more years, the entire campground would have degenerated into a murky, swampy mess.<p>

The Quincy immediately set to work on making this place more presentable. He was well away from any human civilization, and he was fairly sure that a random stretch of wilderness wouldn't be monitored by the Soul Society. So, he accelerated his work with just a _tiny_ bit of spiritual energy. Just a tiny bit, though.

In reality, he had exerted about a quarter of his reserves to do what he did: He dug out the mud and repaired the riverbanks, packing it down with a hammer of reiatsu that seemed to crush the mud into dense, nigh incorrigible walls. He quickly landscaped the dryish dirt under the mud, using a little blade he forged with his own power, and even felled a few trees in order to provide extra space.

Within a few hours time, he had created a respectable ground that would have looked appealing to anyone, even those stuffy bastards who liked caviar and drank classy vintage wine. The Quincy leaned against one of the few trees that had been spared his relentless path of destruction, and mulled things over.

So far, things were... Interesting. He had wandered through three different cities so far: Kobe, Osaka, and Kyoto, and all three had been equally generic and monotonous. However, as he wandered, he couldn't help but feel a little desperate. He had sensed Rukia when he went through Kobe, knowing she was just a few kilometers away, and as he left Kyoto, he knew that Uryu was just a day's walk away. He had left in order to help them, in order to keep him or the Soul Society from hurting them, and it was just a little bit off-putting that they were still looking for him.

The first few days, he had gotten frantic text messages and calls, asking where he was and why he wouldn't come back. Yuzu in particular had been the most frantic of them, sending at least twenty texts a day for the first week, and tapering that number down to fifteen for the other six days. At first it had been endearing, and even a little flattering. But it rapidly became annoying, with his phone going off every hour of the day, and preventing him from getting any sort of useful sleep.

So, he had thrown his phone into the river, the final straw being a phone call placed right in the middle of his after-work nap. He had responded with a rather irritable "Stop calling me, Goat Face!" and tossed it in carelessly.

So far, that decision had been one of his best in a long time. In the silence of the campground, he set up shop. He rolled out a sleeping pad and put a few blankets over it, and quickly started a fire. Ichigo knew that the river was rife with fish, but he still set a few packets of bread out on top of a small rubber pad he put out, as well as a couple water bottles. A contingency in case he didn't catch anything.

Ichigo took to fishing like a pig took to flying; which is to say, not well at all. Despite his rod being shoddily maintained and his skills being nonexistent, he always enjoyed fishing. It was relaxing, as long as he didn't do it with Goat Face, and the joy of actually hooking in a fish was immeasurable. So, when he began his work in the abandoned-by-time river, he let his thoughts wander.

He had taken days to travel around, walking and running his way through, not tapping into his reserves at all. He didn't use _hirenkyaku_ because it would have given his position away, and during the few times he got into fights with hollows, he had simply crushed/stabbed them to death with whatever was around.

Rukia's training had really proven it's value here; he was sure that without it, he would have been found and executed four times over by now. His body didn't emit reiatsu at all anymore, and he was glad for it.

A bite at his hook told Ichigo that he had gotten something. He reeled it in with more force than strictly necessary, and ended up snapping his line. Never one to waste an opportunity, Ichigo shot his and forward, grabbed the line before it slipped away, and wrapped it around his hand. The thin wire cut into his palms, but Ichigo pulled on it and threw his catch into the air.

The fish was caught, gutted, and cooked in just under thirty minutes.

_Fresh fish is always great._ He thought to himself as he lay on top of his blankets.

He had always loved this place, it's quiet scenery, it's peaceful serenity, hell, not even animals bothered this stretch of heaven. It was isolation, plain and simple, and for Ichigo, that on it's own was heaven.

His new found peace wouldn't last long, however. A familiar reiatsu signature was closing in fast, and at the pace Uryu was setting, there was no way Ichigo could pack, leave, and hide his tracks unless he began immediately. It was a huge benefit that his friend didn't seem to be using his _hirenkyaku_, perhaps he was also afraid of emitting reiatsu?

In any case, it gave him just enough time to hide his tracks and flee, and he was planning on doing just that.

Haphazardly, he tossed his thin, scratchy blankets into his pack and rolled up his sleeping pad. He slipped the tidy roll into a small rope holster, and quickly did the same for his fishing rod. He snuffed the tidy fire he had created and moved on, running through the woods at about seventeen miles an hour.

His friends were irritating, that was a definite yes.

Yet, Ichigo knew that they were just being themselves. He knew that if one of them ever left, he would go after them without a second thought.

_Still doesn't stop them from being irritating though._ He thought with a degree of amusement.

Eventually, with nothing but a map, he waded out of the forest and onto a minor road. He kept wandering, intent on getting to the nearest town.

Kusatsu. The fastest path required a short boat ride, but Ichigo didn't mind. He had only ever been on a boat once before, and that was when he about seven and visiting some relatives. As he ran, untiring, his hands found a fake ID. He still couldn't believe his luck, Mizuiro had made him this about fourteen days ago, and he hadn't even questioned him. A fake ID, tons of cash, camping supplies, and much more told Ichigo that he was fully prepared. He knew where he was going and had a pitch-perfect route.

Still, the town was ten kilometers away.

Ichigo had a bit of work to do, didn't he?

Forty-five minutes later, Ichigo stood at a harbor. The wind was blowing off the water in fierce gales, and the sun was obscured behind clouds. It was a cold day, a miserable day, and that discouraged most people. It might have been summer, but Mother Nature didn't quite care at the moment. Never one to care for the cold, Ichigo boarded the ferry after paying his fare. There were only two other accompanying him, everyone else had decided to stay inside their homes.

For one, he didn't feel any presences, no Rukia, no Uryu, and definitely no Shinigami. They were on the lookout for him, he knew that much, but if he could get far away, he might be able to avoid them entirely.

Ichigo reached inside his left pocket and thumbed the silver medallion that showed he was a Quincy. He had been given this when he was nine, just shortly after meeting Soken and Uryu. It was pure sterling silver, beautiful in it's brilliance, but scuffed and warped from years of use. Over time, his growing power had changed the shape of the cross, shifting it from a simple cleric's cross to a five-pointed pentacle.

In his right, was Soken's cross. It seemed to be the very antithesis to Ichigo's own; black wrought iron that refused to change shapes, despite Ichigo's prodding. It was clean and meticulous, perfectly unaffected and maintained despite near-constant use. Soken had given this to Ichigo as his final gift, and the Quincy made sure to treat it as one would a holy artifact.

These were his weapons, the focusing points of his power. Many Quincies were useless without their crosses, or, if they were especially inadequate, their weapons. Ichigo, however, was a rare exception. Similar to the art of Blut Vene, Ichigo could focus energy into his limbs if need be. If he punched a concrete wall in his focused state, the wall would explode out with all the force of a runaway freight train.

These powers had developed with him, and they indicated a power that wasn't quite Quincy, Hollow, or Shinigami. From what he'd seen, Ichigo's abilities were an amalgamation of the three, a power unlike any seen before.

It might explain why Ichigo could heal his wounds from total-destruction to perfectly new by just transferring reiryoku into them. It could explain why he could perform the basic kido spells that Rukia taught him, and it could explain why he survived pulling out his own Chain of Fate.

"Damn, why is this so confusing." He said aloud, attracting the attention of the woman sitting next to him.

"You say something, Mister?" She was wearing a hooded sweatshirt, obscuring most of her face. Still, despite the wrinkles curled around her mouth, she sounded surprisingly young.

"It's nothing. Just thinking of the past."

"I understand. The past is always a fun place to explore." She didn't elaborate further.

The ferry ride was a short one, capping at just under eighteen minutes, but it was by far a boring one. The wind was cold and fierce, the waters turbulent enough to, at times, splash onto the deck. The boat itself was rather drafty, and heading into the lower decks did little to dispel the cold.

Ichigo yawned and leaned into his chair, looking out at the ocean in contemplation.

It was quiet times like these that he treasured so much. They were rare, had always been rare, in fact. Whether it was hollows, his father, thugs, or annoying 'friends', the opportunity to sit back and relax was rare. The quiet had given Ichigo time to reflect on his actions. He had fled his home, perhaps permanently, perhaps not, but he had left. The scary thing was, he didn't regret it.

Not even a little.

He wished that Rukia and Uryu would give up their search, he was sure that they would be found and butchered if they drew too much attention... Luckily, Uryu wasn't a distinctive person, and he didn't have all that much reiryoku. Rukia was too smart to get caught, and the Shinigami were only looking for him.

"How long have you been on the road?" The woman spoke up again, recapturing Ichigo's attention.

"Huh? How'd you know?"

The plain black hood of her sweatshirt slipped slightly, revealing a small smile. "I didn't, actually. Just guessed."

"I see." Ichigo fell silent for a moment. "And I've been traveling around for thirteen days or so."

"Huh. You look kinda young, did you just graduate or something?"

Ichigo nodded. "Yeah, something like that. I'm just taking a little break before I get to college." Ichigo lied through his teeth. It was fortunate that the school year had ended just half a month ago, barely giving his story credibility.

"That's nice. So what brings you all the way out here?"

"I'm going to Kusatsu, actually."

The woman gave another smile. It was a kind, motherly smile, not unlike the one his own mom used to give him.

"Kusatsu? Wouldn't someone your age be more interested in Tokyo or Osaka?"

"I've been there, and I found that I don't like cities. I saw Kusatsu on the map, and I figured that a nice, small town would be a good change of pace."

The woman nodded, her hood slipping even further. A few strands of startlingly dark hair slipped out, a vibrant shade despite the wrinkles on her face.

"It's a good town, my husband and I used to stay there for the summers."

_Used to?_ Ichigo thought, already speculating what she meant.

Before he could say anything else, the ferry came to a halt. Ichigo looked up and saw that the harbor was in front of them.

"It was nice talking to you, Mrs...?"

"Goto. Takura Goto."

Ichigo cracked a hesitant smile. "Until we meet again, Mrs. Goto."

Then, Ichigo got off the ferry and walked onto the open road. Kusatsu was just a couple kilometers away, now, and it wouldn't take much to reach it. He set a furious pace, running along effortlessly, despite his bag weighing just over forty pounds.

At this rate, he'd be there in no time.

* * *

><p>Shinji Hirako stood with his back to the edges of Karakura. Kensei and Hiyori were to his left and right, overlooking the vast network of roads ahead of them. Neither of the three could get a grasp of Ichigo's native reiatsu, making a proper search impossible.<p>

"What's the point in lookin', he could be all over Japan by now. That dick-head's not worth it!" Hiyori grumbled.

"Kid's a coward if he thinks running away is gonna help him." Kensei agreed.

"_Shut up_!" Shinji ordered with surprising vehemence. "Kisuke said that Kurosaki's got a hollow eatin' him from the inside out, and I'll be damned if I let a _15 year old kid_ deal with that alone, understand?"

Kensei shut his mouth and looked down. Hiyori, however, wasn't nearly as affected.

"_We_ dealt with it on our own, why the hell can't he?!"

"Dammit Hiyori, you were four-hundred years old when you got hit by Aizen's Hollowification device-thing, and we at least had Kisuke to save our asses. Kurosaki's barely lived a decade and a half, and he's been saddled with the same thing!" Shinji whirled on his ally, Cheshire Cat smile replaced with a deep, angry snarl.

"Jeez, fine. We'll go and look for him." Hiyori looked away and mumbled, indignant and frustrated.

"That's right ya will. Kensei, meet with Mashiro over down south. She's headin' over to Hiroshima. Hiyori, with me. We're goin' right ta Osaka."

For once, the Short Vizard didn't argue. She nodded wordlessly and vanished with a flit of _shunpo_. Shinji blinked once in surprise, and then followed after her just as quickly. Their surroundings blurred around them, the wind whipped against them with enough intensity to leave slight cuts on their skin, and the Gigai they were wearing were slowly starting to burn up from the flow of reiryoku into them. This was _shunpo_ at it's extreme, Vizard style.

The pair slid to a stop when they reached the skyline. Hiyori looked utterly indifferent to the sight, Shinji, baleful. Shinji's bitter glare was one that Hiyori had only seen once before, when they had tried to carve a city-side hideout in the very fist month of their exile. They had moved away from the city for multiple reasons: So they could be a bit closer to Kisuke. So they could avoid the Shinigami better. So they could hide away more easily. Yet, the group would have had no trouble setting up shop in Tokyo or Kyoto. The one thing that stopped them was Shinji.

He hated cities. He hated the noise, he hated the smog, and above all, he hated the throngs of people that milled about. He preferred the solitude of his warehouse, and the peace that always followed it. He was charismatic (or lucky) enough that the other Vizards respected him enough to honor his wishes.

And he was here again, at a place he hated with all his heart. All because of some damned kid who didn't realize that running away would only get him killed.

Ichigo had better be damned grateful for all the help.

* * *

><p>Kusatsu. A small, cold inland town that reminded Ichigo of a smaller, prettier Karakura town. Ichigo grinned and stepped through the town's boundaries, hopeful at the prospect of a warm meal. He ignored the cackling demon inside his soul, as well as the crippling pain that accompanied it, and wandered into the first restaurant he saw.<p>

_ Cyniqu's Den._ Ichigo pronounced it as one would sat 'Cynic'.

_ That's a weird name. Maybe it's Korean or Mandarin or something._ He thought, mostly uncaring as he stepped into the restaurant.

It's interior seemed to be that of an old fashioned tea-house, and completely unlike the locales Ichigo usually dined in. The second thing he noticed was the lack of customers. From what it seemed, Ichigo and two others were the only ones in this place. A bell rang to signal his entrance, and a waitress met with him almost instantly.

"Hello, and welcome to Cynique's den!" She said cheerfully. "Oh, and don't ask about the name. The boss won't change it no matter how weird it is."

Ichigo smiled.

The waitress smiled back, unmoving for all of fifteen seconds.

"Oh, right! I'm supposed to get you a table now, aren't I?" She snapped to attention and led Ichigo to a small, round table built for one.

Ichigo gave his thanks and looked over the menu she provided.

Meanwhile, from the barely-open door of the main office, a man watched Ichigo with the suspicious eyes of a hawk.

The man pulled his cell phone from his pocket and closed the door. He sent off a message with the calculated speed and efficiency of a machine.

_He's here._

* * *

><p><strong>AN**

**Don't worry about the OC's introduced in this chapter. They're, at the very worst, simply play supporting roles. More likely, they'll be forgotten in due time. Oh, and just so you know, things'll get convoluted fast. I've said it before in private messages, but I feel as if I should warn ya now, because I have a lot in store.**

**The last couple pages of this chapter were hard to get down. Maybe it's because this is my first chapter without any major fight scenes? I used to think that it was impossible to go a whole chapter without _someone_ getting dismembered. Now I know that it's just difficult.**


	10. Consequences

**A/N**

**So, I had some trouble with this chapter, mainly because I didn't know what direction I wanted to take it in. I reckon I rewrote the first two pages 5 times because I didn't much like it. I dunno, I suppose I'm satisfied with the final result, but the fight scenes are kinda lacking in my opinion. Maybe it's because I haven't written a proper one in five days?**

**Oh, and I'm sorry about the delay. Again, it was hard to peg down an intro.**

* * *

><p><em>I'm being watched.<em>

Even while paying ample attention to his tea and sandwiches, Ichigo knew that much. Six long years of bloody combat, sometimes with humans and sometimes with hollows, had sharpened his instincts into a cutting edge. He knew someone was watching him, but the question was, why?

Thus far he had not released his reiatsu in any way at all, save for the stint at Soken's campground, and he had only just arrived in Kusatsu a half-hour ago. It wasn't a Shinigami, and it wasn't a hollow, and there wasn't all that much else that could have taken an interest to him. So, it left him wondering just who the hell was so interested.

He took a final bite of his sandwich and chased it with tea. His meal finished, he paid his bill and left a generous tip on the table. As he left, the serving girl gave him a warm smile, which Ichigo returned. He walked out the door and onto the sidewalk, cold air meeting his movements. This little cafe was located in the middle of a small shopping center, with various stores and restaurants located on either sides of the street.

Ichigo gave a wistful sigh. This town was so similar to Karakura that it made him feel homesick. Hell, right now, he'd be glad for any of his friends' or family's company, and yes, that included Goat-Face. Ichigo walked along the side walk, and noticed that the area wasn't exactly bursting with activity. In fact, there were only two other people on this stretch of road.

Yet, despite the lack of- visible- people, that under-surveillance feeling didn't quite dissipate. In fact, it seemed to grow stronger.

"Damn, now it's just getting plain irritating." Ichigo muttered as he turned onto another street.

Just to test his so-called watchers, he broke into a run. His strides were long and his pace furious, anyone following him would be hard-pressed to keep up.

"Damn!" Someone muttered angrily, although their voice was muffled, it still reached Ichigo's ears.

A grin spread across the Quincy's face, and he doubled his speed. His path was clear, pedestrians, minimal. All in all, it was the perfect opportunity to go all out. Then, he heard rapid footsteps behind him; his stalker had obviously come out of hiding.

_That's it, get just a little bit closer._ Ichigo thought maliciously.

The footsteps behind him grew louder in intensity, and Ichigo grinned sadistically. He ran for just a few moments later, then quickly stopped in his tracks and turned around.

"I have you now!" He shouted at his stalker.

Except, there was no stalker, nor any other living (or undead) being. He had quite literally yelled at thin air.

"What the hell...?" Ichigo's voice trailed off.

Just around the corner, tucked behind a dumpster, a panting voice was heard.

"Damn, that was too close." It said, clearly feminine. "Yeah, too freaking close."

* * *

><p><em>Outside Kusatsu<em>

Shinji Hirako, Hiyori Sarugaki, Kensei Muguruma, and Love Aikawa had all managed to track Ichigo to the quaint little town of Kusatsu. It hadn't been easy, not by a long shot, but after following a trail of witnesses, coming to dead ends more times than one could count with both hands, and being attacked by innumerable hordes of hollows, they had tracked him to this little town. Lisa had been with them, but she had gone to tell Urahara and the others. As for Hachi, Rose, and Mashiro, those three had deigned to stay behind and guard the warehouse.

"What a depressing little hole, don't ya think?" Shinji voiced his unmasked opinion.

"I dunno, this seems like a pretty cool place to me." Love replied indifferently.

"Shut up, dick-heads! Let's just find Kurosaki and go home, this place is too cold." Hiyori growled as she surveyed the town.

Kensei remained silent, and instead took the lead and wandered into town first. Shinji, with an irritated scowl, followed second. Hiyori went along with an indignant huff, but Love stayed back to pull in the scenery.

"Hey, does anyone else sense something weird in the air?" The bespectacled Vizard asked seriously.

"Yeah. There's more reishi in the air than usual." Kensei replied bluntly.

Love stuck around for only a half-minute after that, and followed after his comrades a short while later.

The town of Kusatsu was indeed a small one, with a population board that spoke of a paltry fourteen-thousand people. Yet, it was surprisingly large, with buildings that seemed to span out in all directions, although none was taller than three stories. After just a short while, the reasoning behind this became evident.

Kusatsu had no industry whatsoever, no big factories or foundries, no farms, hardly any sort of business or natural resources. Yet, the town's lifeblood came from trucking. Warehouse after warehouse filled the area, storing goods for the long haul. Trucks came in and out of the city, each one carrying the commodities that kept Japan alive and well.

Clearly, this town was purely temporary; new shipping routes would eventually be made, leaving this town to dry and die, and it was mostly old-timers left, people who refused to leave the town they grew up in. At this point, the town's demise couldn't have been more than thirty or forty years away.

Still, it was a pleasant, if quiet town, and the Vizards were fans of quiet towns. Shinji gave a slight, approving whistle.

"Okay, I take it back. This place is actually kinda nice."

"Told ya so." Love quipped snidely.

Hiyori growled aggressively as she stepped ahead.

"I don't care if it's a nice town, just fan out and find Kurosaki already!"

"Jeez, someone's on the flow." Shinji muttered.

"What was that, Baldy?!"

Shinji sighed in exasperation. "I told you, I'm not bald!"

Kensei said nothing, and instead vanished with a flit of _shunpo_. After a short while, and many amused glances at the bickering couple, Love did the same.

"Just shut up, Hiyori. I'm goin' after Ichigo."

"Yeah, you better." The female Vizard growled.

The Vizards spread their influence all throughout Kusatsu, their eyes collectively scanning the town relentlessly for any sign at all of Kurosaki. At this point, the hollow had to have reached at least ninety-five percent strength, and would be making an attempt at Ichigo's soul _very_ soon if left unchecked.

_Damn, Ichigo, why can't you just accept our help? It would make things a hell of a lot easier, that's for damn sure._ Shinji thought wistfully.

Meanwhile, in the heart of Kusatsu, Ichigo was wondering the very same thing.

* * *

><p>Ironically, in their bid to help Ichigo's life, the Vizards had attracted the attention of the two Captains who were also searching for Ichigo. The two of them, with the newly re-recruited Captain Zaraki, had gotten wind of their efforts and had tailed them almost effortlessly. They too had been led to Kusatsu, and there they would finish the job they had set out to do.<p>

"Damn, this town looks kinda boring. You sure this Ichigo guy should be staying here?" Kenpachi asked impatiently.

"Yes, we've tracked their efforts flawlessly. There is no doubt that my specimen is here!" Mayuri cackled.

Byakuya nodded his agreement and set out immediately, setting a furious pace. As it stood, Ichigo's reiatsu signature was still muted, but the same couldn't be said for the four not-quite-Shinigami who were _also_ searching for Ichigo. While neither of the three knew what their goals were, they most certainly weren't aligned with their own. For that, they had to be dealt with, lethally if need be.

"Kurotsuchi-Taichou, we have others in the area, and they too are looking for Kurosaki."

"Do not tell me what I already know, Kuchiki-Taichou." Mayuri snarled with unmasked venom. "Deal with them, I shall find Kurosaki on my own."

"Alright, time for a fight!" Kenpachi stirred to action, his hands already clasping his zanpakuto.

"Very well. Kenpachi and I shall clear a path, you follow our lead." Byakuya's tone was ice cold.

"As you wish. Be sure to leave the town itself intact, we must not scare away Kurosaki!" Mayuri called after the two warriors.

Byakuya's face was filled with cold indifference, Kenpachi's with raging joy. The two were polar opposites, the very antithesis of one another, but they fought in the same coordinated manner as friends forged through war; and that's what they were. Years of conflict, mainly with newer and more advanced hollows (hollows that appeared just a few months after Aizen-Taichou's rise to power, oddly enough), had forged a bond between the two.

Kenpachi pulled ahead and struck the first Vizard he came across: Kensei. Byakuya vanished and reappeared directly in front of Love.

The battle had begun.

* * *

><p><em>Kenpachi<em>

A rapidly approaching, immense reiatsu signature was the only warning Kensei got before a hulking seven-foot monster attacked him.

Luckily for him, it was more than enough.

Kensei raised Tachikaze just in time to meet Kenpachi's weathered blade, only barely stopping his bifurcation. Kensei's thin blade held strong under the attack, even as the two zanpakuto were stuck in a deadlock, with one opponent clearly dwarfing the other in terms of raw power.

Kensei pulled back just as Kenpachi added a second hand to his hilt, doubling his power. The Vizard jumped upward and landed in a stable platform of reiryoku, his blade's grip reversed and ready to strike. Kenpachi's grin widened, and he charged after his enemy.

"That's right big fella, get over here."

Kensei was outmatched in _almost_ every department. His blade lacked range, it had much less bite than Kenpachi, and his Shikai at the moment was sealed in order for stealth purposes. Clearly it hadn't been enough if three Captains had tracked them, all without any of them noticing. Their reiatsu was uncapped, too.

Kenpachi thrust his blade towards Kensei's neck, but the seasoned Vizard sidestepped the attack and gripped his blade with a leather-gloved hand. He pulled Kenpachi forward, who, for the most part was surprised, and shanked him several times in the gut.

_Damn, what is this guy made of!_ Kensei's mind screamed as he struggled to cut into his enemy.

Kenpachi's grin widened. He broke his blade free of his enemy's grip and stabbed downward. The Vizard pulled his head back, barely avoiding a decapitation, but still suffering a minor wound on his forehead.

"Damn!" He yelped as he pulled back.

Blood pooled on his head, flowing in tiny rills over his face. Before long, a familiar hot sting was in his left eye, and the crimson liquid blinded him somewhat. Kensei grunted and wiped away the fluid, and then charged for his opponent once more.

Kenpachi blocked his enemy's first stab, and then the other, and the other. He was doing so almost effortlessly, as if he was bored with the fight. As if to punctuate this, Kenpachi intoned monotonously.

"You're disappointing, I had been hoping for a good fight."

Kensei's scowl deepened and he rushed for his enemy with renewed zeal. Kenpachi's blade struck a glancing blow down his shoulder, rendering his left arm inert, but he did close the gap exquisitely. He sidestepped another strike and slashed his blade diagonally across the Shinigami's chest. Blood fanned out from the wound, and Kensei felt gratified to deal more than a minor injury.

Kenpachi grinned and brought his knee up, slamming it like a hammer into the Vizard's gut and launching him backwards. Pain exploded throughout his body, and the impact of the strike sent ripples all throughout Kensei's soul, shaking it to the foundations. Blood spilled into his mouth and out of his lips, splattering red onto Kenpachi's Haori.

The Vizard crashed to the ground and hit the pavement. The impact was jarring and painful, but just enough to wake him from his daze.

"You bastard, I'll kill you!" Kensei brought up his blade in a reverse grip. He had yet to summon his mask, but right now, he couldn't do that unless he was willing to kill his opponent. Couldn't leave witnesses and all that.

Blue reiatsu pooled into both his hand and the dagger it contained, forming and creating a bright blue orb. This orb grew in size and intensity until it was easily as bright as a miniature sun, and as big as his head.

"Bakudantsuki!" He shouted and thrust his hand forward.

An explosion of reiatsu pulsed from the orb, annihilating even the air itself in it's rush towards it's desired target. The wave of reiatsu pushed through Kenpachi, ripping the Captain apart with sheer heat and pressure, opening injuries all the while it passed through him. Moments later, the blue firestorm cleared and Kenpachi fell to the ground, burnt to a crisp and bleeding, but very clearly alive.

"Heh, that was a nasty trick you know. But I'll forgive you, just this once." Kenpachi charged at Kensei, his blade already flying. "If you live." He added just a half-moment before his blade struck home.

Kensei was slashed open, his guts split apart by a single stroke. Blood spewed from his wounds and his mouth, splattering the pavement crimson red. The Eleventh Division Captain slashed his blade outward, cleaning off the stained blood. Kensei lay on the ground, writhing in agony and struggling to avoid death.

His grin faded and the adrenaline gone, Kenpachi raised his blade with both hands in order to execute the dying Vizard.

"You were too weak. The weak must die." The Captain said as he brought the blade down towards his enemy's neck.

"Then it's a good thing I'm not weak, huh!" Kensei's now-distorted voice reached Kenpachi's ears. The Captain paused and looked down.

A mask. A Hollow Mask, to be exact, was on Kensei's face.

"DIE!" The demonic voice screeched as Kensei's blade flew ahead. Kenpachi earned a deep stab wound in the chest, and Kensei moved to dish out another.

He grabbed the Captain's hand and moved it upward, knocking his blade away, and stabbed away furiously, inflicting massive damage on the Shinigami's internal organs. Blood dripped from Kenpachi's wounds, but he was swift to retaliate. He struck with his leg, throwing Kensei backwards like a rag-doll, but not eliciting the same pained groans and yelps as previous.

Instead, Kensei recovered midair and launched himself forward on a reiryoku platform, his blade swinging in furious arcs as he flew. He soared over Kenpachi's shoulder, but left a shallow cut on his neck that seemed to spew blood at unbelievably fast rates.

"I swear to you, I will kill you." Kensei intoned as he turned to his enemy. "Right now."

Kenpachi moved to meet Kensei's attack, but was swiftly parried and stabbed, just as before. Crimson vitae spilled away from the injuries, blood that seemed to swill and mix seamlessly with what was already staining the ground.

_I might need to get serious, at this point._ The Captain thought as he narrowly dodged an attack.

Kenpachi slashed ahead with his sword, scoring a deep cut down the length of Kensei's left shoulder, but the Vizard seemed to be beyond caring. His blade temporarily stuck _in_ his opponent, Kenpachi was left defenseless for all of a moment.

A moment was all Kensei needed.

"Bakudantsuki!" He shouted, and launched a bright blue blast of energy through Kenpachi's exposed gut.

A perfect, charred black circle opened in the Captain's gut, felling him to the ground. Yet, miraculously, the spinal cord had survived the attack, leaving a clear-as-day hole in the Captain's gut, divided in two by an errant spine that refused to break. Kenpachi's eyes were wide, not with fear or panic, but with admiration instead.

"You... Got me..." The Captain coughed weakly. "I never even got to fight... at... full strength..." Kenpachi's fading voice was all Kensei needed to hear. The Vizard removed his mask and crumbled it to pieces.

"Die in peace, Shinigami." Kensei said with more reverence than strictly necessary. Even now, his stomach was split open and he was losing blood rapidly, but he couldn't bring himself to care, not when someone else was dying even faster.

Kenpachi fell silent. His hands, however, were still active.

Within a moment, they found the hilt of his zanpakuto.

"You think I'm ready to die?" Kenpachi's voice, though faded, carried extremely well. "Think again!" Kenpachi's left hand ripped away his eye-patch, and his right thrust his zanpakuto through Kensei.

The sharp tip of the blade tore a hole through Kensei, ripping through his lungs and out his back. Agony ripped his mind to shreds, dulling his senses past anything more than token awareness. The Captain's grin widened to unimaginable proportions, and he pulled his blade out and attacked once more, splitting the Vizard open from his hip to his shoulder.

Blood stained the Captain's clothing, but as of yet, Kenpachi rather liked the new look. His injuries were critical, but could be tended later. For now, there were three other Vizards to murder, and Kensei was just the beginning.

Oh yes, today was going to be fun.

* * *

><p><em>Byakuya<em>

Byakuya slashed forward with his blade, meaning to end this petty combat with a single stroke of his blade. Love Aikawa, however, had different plans. He parried his enemy's strike with little effort and rushed ahead, blade point thrust forward with blinding speed. Byakuya pulled back, avoiding the attack, and dashed to the right.

Sighing in frustration, Love went ahead to attack once more. His zanpakuto cried out for blood, and right now, the Vizard wanted nothing more than that too. He struck forward, drawing just the tiniest flow of crimson vitae from his enemy's skin, and eliciting a grunt of pain and annoyance.

Love's mouth curved into a slight smile, and he struck again. Byakuya parried the strike and pulled back, his blade held against his chest.

"It is clear we are at an impasse. I shall rectify that." The Captain paused for all of three seconds.

_"Shatter, Senbonzakura!"_ Byakuya's scathingly cold voice assaulted Love's ears, and his blade split into a thousand fragments.

Love's expression dampened. Back when he had been a Captain, Byakuya Kuchiki had been nothing more than a fledgeling, a fresh-faced recruit who just so happened to be a prodigy. Even then, however, Senbonzakura was a well-known zanpakuto that could easily clash with those twice it's size, if only because of it's sheer versatility.

Almost immediately after, the swarm of metal fragments surged toward the Vizard, seeking to maim and murder. Love grunted as he jumped into the air and readied his blade into a downward strike. Gravity pulled him down and his zanpakuto was on a crash course for Byakuya's face. The Captain pulled back his cherry blossoms and parried the attack, leaving the two stuck in a temporary deadlock.

"I will kill you, Shinigami bastard!" Love shouted as he redoubled his strength.

With some difficulty, he cut through the swarm and landed a slash down Byakuya's shoulder, causing the Captain to give a subdued gasp of pain. Byakuya opened his fist and slammed it into Love's head.

_"Hado Number One: Shou!"_

The force of the blast addled the Vizard's brains and sent him flying into a building. The impact created a spiderweb of cracks and a small crater in the wall, as well as staining it with a huge amount of blood.

Blood trickled from Love's right ear, and his eyeglasses had shattered into fragments. The force of the blast had also ruptured one of his blood vessels, leaving the sclera of Love's right eye to be a haunting red. The Vizard readied his zanpakuto, but refused to summon his mask. Like the other Vizards, their Shikai had been limited in order to avoid detection, thus cutting their effective strength in half.

A hollow mask could rectify that, it could in theory fill the void of a Shikai, but doing so meant he had to be ready to kill his opponent.

And Love didn't think he had it in him to kill someone. Yet.

The Vizard and the Shinigami charged one another, Byakuya's cherry blossoms moving well ahead of their master. Love carelessly swatted aside the first batch, managing to throw them away with a blast of reiatsu, and dodged the second. He got within Byakuya's personal space and slashed downward.

To his surprise, the captain managed to parry the strike with the hilt of his zanpakuto, throwing off Love's attacks for all of a moment. A moment was all that Byakuya needed.

A wall of cherry blossoms converged on Love, and they met fiercely. Blood splattered everywhere, but every single drop was caught by these metal fragments, turning their pink blood red. Love screamed in agony, and only _just_ managed to _shunpo_ to a safer location. His wounds were overflowing, his strength, dwindling. Right now, Love was at approximately half strength. Byakuya was fighting with unlimited power.

Not good.

The Vizard readied his zanpakuto and leveled it at his opponent. He staggered up and stood straight, his blade still pointed at his opponent.

"Byakuya... You've almost won this fight... So tell me, what do you want with Kurosaki?"

Byakuya scoffed. "I see no need to tell you, traitor."

"I see... So that's how it is." Love chuckled even as he coughed blood all over the concrete tiles beneath him. "Not cool, Shinigami."

Love threw his arm up and released the grip on his zanpakuto, sending the deadly piece of steel on a warpath straight for Byakuya's exposed body. The blade pierced through his sternum and out his back, spraying blood onto the ground and into the air. Love wasted no time in appearing in front of Byakuya, pulling his blade out, and disemboweling the Captain with deadly efficiency.

The Captain's steaming organs spilled from the newly opened cuts, accompanied with a flood of crimson that seemed to denote a rapid death. Eyes wide with surprise, Byakuya could do little else but watch as Love cleaned off his blade with a single swipe.

Still, his fate may have been written in stone, but it certainly didn't mean that he'd die with a whimper. With his mind alone, Byakuya willed the hordes of flower petals to converge on his enemy, engulfing him in a bright pink-red orb. Love's screams reached the Captain's ears, allowing Byakuya's expression to lighten somewhat.

Byakuya tightened the orb, compressing it down and slowly ripping the Vizard into tiny fragments of himself.

"Die now... Traitor..." Byakuya's dying breath was spent, and his eyes glazed over. Death was upon him.

Almost immediately, the pink coffin of flower petals dispersed, leaving Love slumped on the ground. He was panting heavily and bleeding even worse, but very clearly alive. In fact, he definitely would have died if not for the mask on his face.

"Too damn close..." The Vizard panted as he fell over unconscious.

_Too damn close._ His mind repeated, even as he slept.

A minute later, Kenpachi arrived on the scene to find Byakuya's dead body splayed out across the rooftops. Zaraki's grin faded away, replaced with a scowl instead. He looked around for the man who could have done it, but the body of the Vizard was strangely absent. Odd too, considering the massive pool of blood where Love's body _should_ have been.

"You had to get yourself killed, didn't you, Kuchiki?" Kenpachi asked no one at all. "The weak must die." The Captain walked away, not quite as eager to kill his opponents, but his blood-lust was never slaked quite that easily.

Still, the absence of a body was rather disheartening. Kenpachi would have loved to cut into a corpse at the moment. Perhaps his comrades had taken the body away for a burial, or something. If Kenpachi had been any smarter, he would have known that the Vizards wouldn't bother doing such a thing. If they had found the body, they wouldn't worry about a burial, they'd worry about revenge.

Which left only one logical conclusion. It was someone other than the Vizards who had taken Love's body. It was an outside force, but Mayuri was also out of the picture; He'd been idling his time away at the sidelines waiting for him and Byakuya to clear a path just as they'd said.

Just _who_ had taken the Vizard's body?

Kenpachi spared a final look at his deceased friend and moved on, knowing that two others remained. Before he could begin his search, however, the two remaining Vizards appeared on their own. Hiyori Sarugaki and Shinji Hirako. Both of them looked _really_ pissed.

"Kensei's hurt bad and we can't find Love. At least we got one of you Shinigami bastards." Hiyori growled.

"Now now, Hiyori, mind your language. We can let our actions speak for themselves." Shinji's voice dripped with venom as he raised his zanpakuto.

Hiyori made an odd sound of agreement, and drew her own blade. They stood still for a moment, anger and resolve making themselves evident on their faces. Then, they struck.

Hiyori charged forward, taking the direct route, while Shinji looped around the side to attack Kenpachi's right flank. The Captain made use of his long blade, holding it at a slight angle in order to parry the dual attacks. Kenpachi jumped back and looped forward on Shinji, his zanpakuto screaming for blood.

Shinji parried the first downward slash, but the second opened him up and splattered his blood every-which-way, further tainting an already wrecked battlefield. Hiyori capitalized on Zaraki's slight distraction, attacking him from the back with deadly force. To her surprise, her blade merely ground up against his skin as if his body was made of steel instead of flesh.

Kenpachi grinned, and immediately whirled around to deliver a bone-crunching kick in the short Vizard's chest. Hiyori gasped in agony and was launched back, flying several meters before crashing onto the roof of another building entirely. The Captain turned to Shinji, his ire fully awakened.

"Time to die!" Kenpachi shouted in joy as he attacked the Vizard.

Shinji held up his blade to parry the assault, barely saving himself from the helter skelter wave of attacks. Right now, he felt unnaturally weak, like his already-subdued reiatsu was being weakened even further, to the point where he was about as as strong as an unseated Shinigami. Kenpachi's grin widened, and he brought his blade down with both hands.

Shinji was impaled by the attack, and his eyes widened considerably.

"God...dammit..." He panted before submitting to the oncoming black wave.

"YOU BASTARD! I HATE YOU!" An enraged scream met Kenpachi's ears, and he turned to face a small masked demon rushing for him.

Before he could even block the oncoming attack, his right hand was chopped cleanly off. Zaraki gave a slight painful whimper, but that was literally the only indication he gave that he had actually felt anything at all.

He looked down to his bleeding stump of a hand, which seemed to gush blood uncontrollably.

"Oh. I guess I have to use my left." Zaraki deadpanned.

Hiyori, however, was not amused. She rushed ahead to attack her opponent once more, sharpening her reiryoku to a hot, cutting edge. She got close to Zaraki and struck, splitting his broad chest open, end to end. Screaming in rage, Hiyori continued to attack, opening wounds left and right. Zaraki jumped back, panting slightly, and grinned.

"I think I can fight at full power now!" The Captain cackled malevolently as he ripped his eyepatch away. "Enjoy death, little girl!"

Hiyori charged. Kenpachi met the attack.

Their blades clashed, but one dwarfed the other considerably.

As Kenpachi's zanpakuto glided effortlessly through Hiyori's, the only thought running through the Vizard's was one of vengeance.

_I will kill you, Shinigami._

Just a short while after that, she was cut deep across the chest and back. Blood fanned out in both directions, and she fell away, unconscious but far from dead. Zaraki slumped against a concrete half-wall, weak and exhausted. Fighting three opponents had opened more wounds than he could count, and forced him to expend more reiatsu than was healthy for even his hardy body.

Just a few minutes later, his fatigue got the better of him, and he fell into oblivion.

* * *

><p>Mayuri came by shortly afterward, but oddly enough, Shinji's and Hiyori's bodies were missing.<p>

"Excellent. It seems that my anti-Vizard poison worked splendidly. I doubt you could have survived if I hadn't subdued Hirako-san's reiatsu like I had." Mayuri said to himself rather proudly. "Now you sit there and die, you big brute, I have a specimen to collect."

With a sadistic grin on his face, Mayuri stalked off after Ichigo, already thinking about what tools he'd use and where he'd be stored.

_I suppose he might resist. It's a good thing my zanpakuto is so good at subduing unruly subjects..._ Mayuri thought pleasantly.

The Twelfth Division Captain jumped into the air in order to better survey the town. In fact, his luck was proven when he immediately spotted the bright orange head of Ichigo Kurosaki, who seems to have noticed the combat going on around him. In fact, just this now, Kurosaki seemed to have manifested his bow.

"I'll kill you, Shinigami!" Ichigo's voice, despite the intense wind and huge distance between the two, reach Mayuri's ears with ease.

"We'll see, Quincy."

Ichigo let fly a volley of arrows immediately, each of them carving a path through the air to reach the deranged Captain. Mayuri dodged each one with ease, but he didn't realize that they were but a distraction. Ichigo appeared behind Mayuri with a burst of _hirenkyaku_, dual reishi blades at the ready. He slashed once with his left, and stabbed with his right.

"I said I'd kill you, didn't I?" Ichigo asked rhetorically as he dispersed his blades.

In their place, he formed an orb of explosive energy.

"Die." The Quincy whispered.

A massive blast of bright blue reiryoku tore into Mayuri, launching him down to the concrete below. He crashed, hard, creating a massive crater in the street and causing several pedestrians to stop and look. Enraged, Mayuri launched out of the crater on a warpath for his target, his now-released blade already ready.

Mayuri's clothes were charred and his skin was seared, but he seemed mostly intact. Not good.

Ichigo formed a twin set of blades and parried Mayuri's attack, but he still had to dodge his head to avoid the third prong of the trident-like zanpakuto. He lashed out and kicked the Captain hard in the gut, causing him to gasp and be thrown back slightly.

"I wish you'd stop resisting, it makes my job very difficult indeed." Mayuri groaned as he regained his footing.

"I wish you'd just die already, Shinigami."

They charged once more, Ichigo clearly being the stronger opponent. He slid his first blade effortlessly into Mayuri's gut, and his second parried a downward slash. The deranged Captain grunted in pain and pulled back, clearly getting fed up with the exchange.

"I don't want you to die, but it is clear that my zanpakuto is not enough." Mayuri's grin widened disproportionally as he reached for one of the yellow capsules where his ear should be.

Much to Ichigo's utter horror, he ripped out the capsule and revealed a scythe, attached by rope-like strands of flesh and sinew. Mayuri twirled the scythe about nonchalantly, as if practicing it's use.

"What the hell are you!?" Ichigo shouted at the Shinigami, who only shrugged sheepishly.

"Someone who much surpasses you, my specimen." Mayuri launched himself forward, his scythe in motion before he had even wanted it to be.

The scythe ripped Ichigo's shoulder open painfully, sending flaring red signals to his brain. Ichigo moaned in pain, but was still lucid enough to dodge the second attack. He parried a third strike and lunged forward, both his blades having combined into a spear. He stabbed forward, catching Mayuri's arm and leaving it in shambles. He reformed his weapon instantly into a blade once more and ground it across the Captain's chest, spraying blood everywhere.

Unfortunately, the left him open to attack. Mayuri swung his scythe down and stabbed Ichigo deep through the shoulder, opening a fresh wound that seemed to be more painful than anything he had ever faced before.

"God...Damn..." Ichigo muttered as he fell to the ground.

Still, not one to give up quite so easily, he poured his energy into his right Bangle. A bright blue orb of energy began to form there, and he released it. A long, super-heated beam of blue energy shot from his hand, and he swept it across Mayuri's body, effectively bifurcating the insane man. Ichigo hit the ground just a short while after, his fall only marginally padded with reiatsu.

Bones shattered and muscles tore, but Ichigo poured his energy into them and willed them to move, despite the pain. Mayuri wasted no time in following up with his attack, zanpakuto flying at incredible speeds.

Ichigo jumped up to meet the attack, both hands clutching his furious blue sword. He swung at the same time as his deranged opponent, and they clashed for just a brief time. Bright blue light enveloped the two of them, blinding the both temporarily. Ichigo felt nothing, Mayuri felt as if he'd been ripped open.

It was clear who the winner was.

Mayuri collapsed and flew to the ground, this time at a slower rate than earlier. Ichigo followed after him, gently lowering himself with reiatsu. The Captain hit the ground and stayed there, and the Quincy walked up to him with his blade at the ready.

"I'm sorry about this, really, but I can't leave you alive." Mayuri's eyelid slid open, and he eyed his enemy warily. His death was imminent, he knew that, and there was little he could do to stop it.

Ichigo raised his blade and pointed it's tip at his enemy's neck.

"I'll make this painless-" Ichigo was cut off by a blinding, searing white agony in the back of his head.

_What the hell!? Not now, please not now!_

He gave a pained moan of agony and fell backwards, the pain spreading to the back of his eyes. His body stiffened, his soul became very, very painful.

_"I hope you didn't forget about me, King!"_ The demonic voice of his hollow attacked Ichigo's mind.

"No... Not now!" Ichigo clutched his head and shook it about, trying to dispel this demon.

_"You've ignored me for too damn long, King, I want to switch, now!"_

"At this point, you'll get us both killed!"

Mayuri watched the exchange with some confusion, but more satisfaction. Whatever was happening, it gave him a clear-cut opportunity. His hands ventured around and found his zanpakuto, still released.

_"SWITCH!"_

"NO!"

Mayuri grinned sadistically. He leveled his blade at Ichigo and stabbed forward, immediately catching the Quincy deep in the gut.

"Damn... It..." The hollow dispersed and Ichigo fell to his side, paralyzed.

Pain and anger filled the Quincy's mind. Right now, he wanted nothing more than to murder his hollow, this Shinigami, and everyone else who had ever stood against him. He couldn't move, that was the worst of it. He was in pain, he was weak, but worst of all, he was _helpless_.

Mayuri's grin widened. He approached the substitute with a calculating gleam in his eye, knowing he had won.

Victory was his.

* * *

><p><strong>AN**

**So, several developments this chapter. Byakuya's dead, no doubt about it. Ichigo's lost a battle, and half of the Vizards have been incapacitated. I have a few things to mention: Sometime during the development of this chapter, I found that Kensei had an attack similar to Ichigo's reiatsu blast thing that I invented, it is, as you may know, called Bakudantsuki. So if you ever wanted a visual reference to how Ichigo's attack looks, just go on the Bleach Wiki and look it up. Oh, and know that one of the main reasons why I love writing Bleach fanfiction is because death isn't permanent, what with the rebirth cycle. Even if someone does die, their usefulness isn't depleted.**

**So that's all, thanks if you read this far! Oh, and leave a review please, it only takes a few minutes and it really makes my day.**


	11. Explanations

**A/N**

**Byakuya's a dead man, really, but I admit I never planned it that way. He's a favorite of mine, fourth, actually, and he died because there was no one else who could have. Seriously, he died because I wanted him to; because no one had died in awhile.**

**Oh, and I'd like to give special thanks to a reviewer of mine who's been fairly consistent throughout the chapters: Writophrenic. Seriously, thanks for all the support, and anyone who's never heard of her should check out her work, it really isn't bad. So thanks Writophrenic, and make sure to keep the compliments coming, they're great for my ego.**

**Oh, this Author's Note is stretching out, isn't it? Not much to say, although this chapter did pretty much write itself. Happy tenth chapter and ten-thousand views, me!**

* * *

><p>Mayuri's grin was wide. Terrifyingly, impossibly wide. It was as if the deranged scientist had purposefully had <em>surgery<em> to make his grin as wide as it was.

"Now now, my little Quincy, all I have to do is give you a little sedative, and you shall fall into a deep sleep." Mayuri approached, a satisfied, deeply fulfilled glint in his eye.

_Dammit, no! Get away from me!_ Ichigo was unable to move his mouth; the fear-induced paralysis was too strong for even that much.

Mayuri walked at an agonizingly slow pace, tapping the edge of the syringe thoughtfully as he did.

"Have a pleasant sleep, my little Quincy." The needle was stuck in Ichigo's arm, but Mayuri never got the chance to push any of the sedative in.

A gunshot- A gunshot of all things!- rang out, filling the cold air with noise. Mayuri's arm was blown off as a bright blue bullet composed of reishi slammed into him. Another gunshot erupted, caving in the scientist's torso. A third filled the air, this time blowing off Mayuri's leg from the knee down.

"Argh! Damn it all!" Mayuri crashed to the ground and crawled backward with his right arm, at least, until the entire lower half of his body was blown off by the as-of-yet unknown marksman.

"Bulls-eye! You owe me 200 yen, Bambi!" A bubbly voice was heard, just straight ahead of Ichigo. Sure enough, when he looked, he saw two figures.

One was standing up, with a black hood covering most of her face, but a few strands of errant black hair spilled from her hood. A pair of binoculars was over her eyes, hiding her identity. Although her feminine voice was well heard. The other wasn't nearly as covered, with a delicate, grinning face that looked a lot like Orihime's, but the long black hair on her head was grave contrast to the former's auburn shade. She was crouched down, a lightly glowing sniper rifle nuzzled under her shoulder.

She pulled the trigger and fired again, a bright blue muzzle flash indicating the shot. Sure enough, another huge hole was opened up on Mayuri's chest. The marksman took her eye away from the scope and did a little fist-pump, as if to congratulate her success.

Mayuri made an awkward scream-esque noise that was utterly heart-wrenching to hear.

"Damn you, damn all of you! I'll be back, Quincy, I'LL BE BACK!" Mayuri injected himself with a drug, barely avoiding another gunshot as his body turned to liquid.

"Woah, that's weird. Did I get him, Bambietta?"

"Yeah, he's gone, Giselle. Good work."

Before Ichigo had a chance to wonder what the hell just happened, both figures jumped from their positions. Giselle, the marksman from what it seemed, grabbed her gun. With a single flick of her hand, the rifle dissolved into reishi particles.

"What the hell...?" Ichigo regained the use of his mouth, thank God, but it was of no use to him now. What he had just seen rendered him speechless.

_Are... Are these two Quincies? I thought Uryu and I were the last ones..._

Giselle approached him, her face marked with the dumbest, most amused-looking grin he had ever seen. Behind her was Bambietta, who was wearing, oddly enough, a mini-skirt, _almost_ hidden under her white trench coat.

"Hi there, Ichigo!" The marksman's voice was filled with good cheer.

"How do you..." Ichigo's voice trailed off, unable to sustain itself.

"Giselle, prepare a stretcher. He's a bit too wounded to talk right now, we'll get him back to Cyniqu's and let him rest for awhile." Bambietta turned to face him. "We'll answer your questions later, but for now, sleep for awhile. We have your Vizard friends resting quietly. Don't die, you're a valuable recruit."

Ichigo would have protested, but Bambietta took the needle already sticking out of his arm and pushed down, injecting a half-dose of Mayuri's sedative into him. The effect was almost instantaneous, and he was out like a light.

Although his eyes were closed, he retained his hearing for just a little while longer.

"He's kinda cute though, isn't he?" Giselle's voice. Had to be.

"Be quiet, Giselle. He's a new recruit, not your boyfriend."

"Don't remind me." Giselle's voice seemed to be filled with humor, rather than actual regret.

After that, however, Ichigo's senses went dead, and he fell into a deep sleep.

* * *

><p>Ichigo awoke to a desolate land of swirling white sand and an endless night. His eyes ran from place to place, taking in the view. This place... This hellhole, was nothing but desert. Desert and small white crystal trees.<br>"What the hell...?" Ichigo let his voice trail off as he scanned around the desert.

"Hey, King!" A familiar, demonic voice rang through the desert.

Ichigo whirled around with inhuman speed, and found himself staring at his yellow-eyed doppelganger. He almost stumbled backwards from the shock of it; the Hollow's voice had sounded so far away at first, yet here he was, just an arm's length away from that grinning demon. Ichigo instinctively jumped back and manifested a reishi blade, instantly prepared to begin combat.

"Relax, King. I'll take over some other day, but for now, all I want to do is talk."

"Talk." Ichigo repeated, obviously in disbelief.

"That's right. I want to talk about the powers you don't know you have." The hollow paused, as if to consider his words. "I'm sure you know this by now, but you're not a full-blooded Quincy. You never have been."

This caught Ichigo completely off guard. "W-what?!"

The Hollow looked at him with the most disappointed, baffled expression. Ichigo almost felt bad about it- until he remembered that he was dealing with a blood thirsty monster.

"You kiddin' me? Seriously King, you never thought your powers were weird? You never wondered why you could regenerate your body, or why you could launch _cero's_?" The Hollow cackled violently. "That's rich!"

"Regeneration... _Cero_?" Ichigo's voice was stilted and slow, as if to taste the words.

"No ordinary Quincy can regenerate their wounds like you do, and don't you think that reishi blast is too similar _to_ a _cero_ to _not_ be a _cero_?! You take in energy from the air and launch it out after adding some of your own, it's literally the definition of a _cero_! You're a dumbass, King! Those are hollow powers, admit it."

"I'm not a hollow! Shut your damned mouth!" Ichigo shouted back, indignation ringing through his voice.

"And I never _said_ you were a hollow, King, I just said that you aren't quite Quincy and you aren't quite Hollow. You just have some powers that mix a bit of both. And I bet you wanna know where all these powers come from, don't you?"

Ichigo's fist clenched, but gradually, he waned his anger until it was nothing more than a dull throb.

"Talk fast, Hollow."

The devilish being grinned. "With pleasure, _King_." The hollow paused as it recalled it's life up to this point. "Your bloodline is a screwed pile of shit, you know. Our mom's a Quincy and dad's a Shinigami. Oddly enough, those two just got together and make a big happy-fucking family. When you were made, your tiny little body was given a huge amount of reiryoku thanks to our idiot dad. Naturally, this little bit of power attracted hollows, and dear old dad and ma were hard-pressed to kill these creatures. Somewhere along the line, your mom got mauled by a hollow when she was pregnant with ya, transferring a ton of hollow reiatsu into your tiny body. That's where I come in. While in the womb, I got born inside ya, and I would have devoured your soul if dear old mother hadn't found out about it and sealed your power. Still, despite the seal, you still got to see ghosts and shit, but it was never meant to evolve beyond that. But then Grand Fisher came along, and he stabbed you right in the soul-sleep."

"Wait, so you're that voice I heard when we got-"

"Correct-o! Instead of killin' ya, that stab wound broke the seal and released my power, and that in turn set off your Quincy bloodline. Don't you see, that's why you had those abilities, the healing, the attacks, hell, even your _hirenkyaku_ has traces of hollow reiatsu in it. But, I still wasn't strong enough to take over, so, in order to stop myself from going _completely _insane from boredom, I granted ya some of my powers. Until you decided to pull out your Chain o' Fate. That gave me a _huge_ amount of my strength back, and then I tried to kill ya. But of course, you had to ruin it by living past it, didn't ya?"

"You've been living inside me... This whole time...?"

"Of course I have, have you been listening to me?! How do you explain surviving this long? How many times do you think you would have died if I hadn't given you just a little extra push? These powers came from me, dammit, and you've never bothered using the really good ones. I'm dyin' of boredom in here, King, day in and day out, all I do is sit here while you do your hunky-dory white-knight act, barely ever using me for anything! All is want is a goddamn break from this depression! If I can't make you give me it, then I'll just take it myself."

Boredom. That was the Hollow's motive? Just... Being bored?

"You have no idea how bad it's been, King. All you ever do is call on that half-assed regeneration and shoot that dinky little beam at people, and here I am, slowly goin' insane from it all..." The Hollow whirled on Ichigo, furious. "I used to be normal! I used to be just like you, but fifteen years of nothing has a habit of drivin' people crazy! Just use me for once, dammit, I'm sick of being thrown on the sidelines for some damned power that's barely even a quarter as strong as mine!"

"I... I'm sorry, I didn't know..." Ichigo found his voice trailing, his resolve weakening. As it happened, this Hollow, this being of instinct, was just like any other person, with wants and needs, emotions and weaknesses.

"Damn right you didn't know, but you know now! I'm givin' ya one more chance, King, and if you don't use the gifts I give ya, then I'm taking the crown. Use those new friends of yours. The blonde guy's kinda creepy, but he can help ya figure out what I'm talkin' about. Three days King, three days is all ya get." With his little rant expended, the hollow began to dissipate into black dust.

"Wait, Hollow! Get back here!"

The creature grinned, even as it's legs and arms were disintegrating.

"I have a name, y'know. I might've taken it from someone else, but it's still a name."

"Tell me!" Ichigo's shout filled the dead air of his inner world.

The grin widened. "Zangetsu. The name's Zangetsu, and it's nice to meet ya, Ichigo."

_Zangetsu. _With a final thought, bright white light filled Ichigo's senses.

* * *

><p>As Ichigo stirred to awareness, several voices registered within his hearing.<p>

"Is Kensei gonna be alright? I'd hate ta have ta rip apart our new prisoner if he isn't."

"Leave Zaraki-taicho alone, we were lucky to capture him in the first place, Shinji. Muguruma-san is going to be fine, Tessai's healing kido made sure of it."

"I'll take your word for it, Kisuke. You better not be wrong, because then I'd have to kill you, too."

"I'm never wrong, you know that Shinji."

The not-quite-Quincy stirred to wakefulness, his eyes opening slightly to scan the room he was in. Kisuke was there... And Uryu too, Rukia was floating off to the side of his vision, and there were a couple others he didn't recognize. A blond guy with a Cheshire-cat smile that was somewhat off-putting, a short woman in a superhero costume, and a woman dressed as a schoolgirl.

What the hell was going on?

"Ah, Kurosaki-san, you're awake!" Kisuke exclaimed.

"Mind filling me in on what happened, Urahara." Not a question, a demand.

"Ah well, that's a bit of a long story..."

Ichigo scoffed. "Then you better start soon."

"Well. I suppose I should start right from the beginning, huh?"

"You can't start from the end, dumbass." Ichigo quipped.

"Point taken." Kisuke paused as he let his expression deepen. "Shortly after you left, the Vizards followed after you, hoping to suppress the hollow inside you before it took over and killed everything. They tracked you to Kusatsu, mostly out of luck, and they sent back one of their own to tell us.. In doing so, the Shinigami who were _also_ looking for you found their trail and ended up at Kusatsu too. The two forces fought, and the Vizards managed to edge out the Shinigami even with their Shikai's limited. Kuchiki-taicho was killed and Zaraki-taicho was incapacitated. Mayuri, the scientist, found you and attacked you, as you know."

Abruptly, a door opened and a man stepped in.

The man was tall, with a head of long blonde hair that reached down to his mid-back. His stoic demeanor and cold eyes were too much like Byakuya for Ichigo's tastes. The man was wearing a double-breasted white coat, one that looked similar to Ichigo's own (unworn) Quincy garb, and a long white trench coat.

"Jugram Haschwalt, leader of of the Sternritters. Pleased to meet you, Kurosaki." Haschwalt stated matter-of-factly. He held his hand out to Ichigo, open but far from welcoming.

When Ichigo failed to meet his grasp, the Quincy pulled his hand back, nonplussed as ever.

"Anyway, one of the Sternritter patrols found Kensei in a bad situation. They judged from his reiatsu that he wasn't a normal Shinigami, and then brought him back here. They did the same for every other wounded, and eventually found you, Ichigo. Lisa came back, with Uryu, Rukia, the other Vizards, and I behind her, and we tracked you guys down. And now here we are."

Kisuke paused to clear his throat.

"Haschwalt leads a band of Quincies that used to be about twenty-seven strong, but they got weathered down over the years until it was just him and five others. Bambietta Basterbine, Giselle Gewelle, Meninas McAllon, Bazz-B, Royd Lloyd. These guys are the last five under his command, you've already met two of them. There'll be a time for you to meet the others, just know that Shinigami and greater hollows got most of them as the years went by." Kisuke explained.

With the main explanations done and over with, the Sternritter Commander began his own miniature speech.

"Ostensibly, we have been searching for new members, and you and Ishida have proven your worth several times over. As such, we extend an offer to you: Join us, and we shall take you to the heights of the Quincy, we shall grant protection to your comrades, and we shall fight alongside you. Ichigo Kurosaki, you would be the strongest of us, your power is ours and ours is yours. All you need to do is accept." Haschwalt's offer was more than a little tempting, but at the moment, Ichigo was unsure of his answer.

Ichigo didn't quite know what to say after that. An invitation to join them, people he barely even knew. Whether they saved his life or not, the point was moot, because right now, he simply didn't trust them.

"I don't trust you." With the bluntness of a baseball bat, Ichigo threw out his answer.

To his mild surprise, Jugram merely smiled. "I would be disappointed if you did trust me so quickly. I shall take my leave and await your answer." Haschwalt left the room, and the temperature seemed to increase a few degrees now that his icy demeanor was gone.

Kisuke watched the exchange, a small smile on his lips.

"Are your sure that was the best move, Kurosaki-san?"

"No, of course not. But it's not like I have a choice, the guy might've saved my life, but I still don't trust him. I can't work under someone I don't trust."

"Just what I expected from you, Kurosaki-san." Kisuke looked over the room. Mashiro, Lisa, and Shinji were in the room. The others, sans Kensei, were doubtless outside, listening in. "Alright, everyone except the Vizards, get out. I'm sure they need to discuss some things with Ichigo in private."

Wordlessly, the others complied with the request. After Uryu and Rukia filed out, Kisuke followed along, and a black cat too. Leaving Ichigo alone in a room of strangers. Just a few moments later, four others came in, of various shapes and sizes. There was a giant of a man with the weirdest pink hair, and a tiny shrimp of a girl about the same height as Rukia, as well as a rather effeminate man with long blond hair. Another, with an eyepatch over his right eye, and a half a pair of sunglasses over the left. An odd combo, very odd.

"So this is Kurosaki? He's not too impressive, I mean look at him!" The short, blond one yelled.

Ichigo didn't bother saying that he was still in the room. Shinji seemed to do it for him.

"Now now, Hiyori, mind your manners. We have a lot to discuss with Kurosaki-san."

"Like what?" Ichigo practically demanded it, and with a lot more hatred in his voice than strictly necessary.

"Hachi, put a sound barrier on the doors and walls. Mashiro, close the curtains please." Shortly after, those two tasks were accomplished, and Shinji redirected his attention towards Ichigo. "Like your Hollow." The Vizard replied.

"Oh? What about him?"

"You're going to have to subdue him, y'know. Or else he'll devour your soul. You aren't a Shinigami or a spirit, so things are bound to be a bit different, but I think we can help ya."

Ichigo suppressed a snicker. "You _think_ you can help me? You know, that doesn't sound all that convincing."

Shinji shrugged. "It's the best we can do. Now then, do you know how to summon that hollow of yours? We kinda need to gauge your power level before we can get started."

"Summon it?!" Ichigo sputtered, mostly out of surprise.

"Yeah, summon it, dickhead! Whaddya think we just said?" Hiyori shouted from the sidelines, attracting Ichigo's attention.

"You know, little girls really shouldn't swear so much." Ichigo deadpanned.

Hiyori growled at him, the sound being just a bit too loud for her small frame.

"I'm not a little girl! I'm older than you, human!"

"Ya sure do look like a little girl." Shinji interjected.

Hiyori growled again before slapping the blonde Cheshire-man with her sandal. "Take it back!" She shouted.

"Nah, I'm with Ichigo on this one, your voice is just a little to big for ya." Shinji mocked her, even while Hiyori repeatedly slapped him with her sandal.

"Hey, shut it! I think we're getting a little side-tracked." Lisa quelled the bickering, and redirected her attention on Ichigo. "Well, can you summon that hollow of yours?"

Ichigo paused to consider it. "My hollow, huh? He and I had a conversation while I was out, said you guys could-"

Shinji interrupted with the angriest, shocked cry Ichigo had ever heard. "You _talked_ with that bastard?! As in, not stabbing each other and yelling curses at each other?!"

"Well... Yeah, didn't you guys do the same?"

"You talked with your hollow? Man, that's cool. All me and that bastard do is punch each other, can't really do much else." Love sounded just a bit envious.

"Berry-tan can talk with his hollow! I'm so jealous, I can sometimes hear mine, but she never hears anything I say back!" Mashiro leaned over to examine Ichigo, sometimes poking him with her finger. "You don't look that different from us... What's your secret?"

"It might just be the fact that he's a human that distinguishes him from us." Hachi suggested.

"Well whatever the case is, can you summon that hollow of yours?" Shinji whirled back into the conversation, his interest piqued.

"Well, I guess I could try... But shouldn't we go somewhere else?"

Shinji acknowledged the point. "Yeah, you're right. I'll ask Haschwalt if he's got some sorta training ground or something."

With that, the Vizards dispersed, and although Mashiro spent a few seconds longer examining him, no one really seemed to care all that much. Good for Ichigo though, he never really liked the spot-light. Shortly after Mashiro followed after the group, another pair of visitors came barreling in. The same duo from the other day, Giselle and Bambietta.

"Hi there, Ichigo!" The former practically shouted at him, a goofy-looking grin on her face.

The other looked slightly apprehensive, but not as guarded and withdrawn as some of the other Vizards seemed to be.

"Hello there, Kurosaki-san."

"Eh, you could drop the honorific. They've always been a bit stuffy for me."

Bambietta smiled. "Then that's something we have in common. My name is-" Giselle interrupted her with a theatrical flourish.

"Bambietta Basterbine! And I'm Giselle Gewelle, but you can call me Gigi, M'kay?"

Ichigo found Giselle's overbearingly happy attitude to be somewhat suffocating. After spending so much time with caustically sarcastic people, namely Uryu, Rukia, and Kisuke, he found the sudden mood change jarring.

"Oh... Kay then..." Ichigo was at a loss for words.

"So stunned by my amazing entrance that I've taken your breath away, huh?"

"Never mind Giselle-"

"Call me Gigi!"

"-Her heart's in the right place, but her head, not so much. The world's been too good to her not to go a little crazy."

Ichigo couldn't help but agree. At that moment, his impressions were fairly straightforward. If this was how the other Sternritters behaved, then the entire group was batshit insane. Yet, that was what Ichigo liked best. Hollows were crazy, but Ichigo, despite himself, had taken a liking to the one inside his own soul. Kisuke was insane, but he and his comrades were a decent bunch. The Vizards were far from normal, but Ichigo couldn't help but feel comfortable in their presence.

Yes, if they were insane, then the entire world was insane too. For Ichigo, that was A-Okay.

"Ichigo Kurosaki. But I'm sure you already know that." The not-quite-Quincy paused to consider his next words. "What are the others like?"

"Oh, they're great! Meninas is good at cooking and she's super strong, she's also really pretty and has long purple hair and everything. Bazz-B likes fire, a lot, and sometimes he likes to make the bad guys bleed too. It's really pretty! And Royd has a big eye-tattoo on his forehead, and he's bald too. He's really nice, even if he's kinda quiet, and he's super loyal to Haschwalt! They're all really great, you'll get along with them."

Giselle went off on a tangent, and then a tangent of a tangent, until her topic ended up on puppies and kittens. Ichigo turned to Bambietta, who was looking at him sheepishly as if to say 'she's always like this'.

"Hey, um, Giselle?"

"Gigi!" She cried out indignantly.

"Yeah, right, do you think I could meet those friends of yours?" Ichigo said in his best placating tone.

"Oh, sure, they should be right in the parlor. Haschwalt closed off the cafe so we could talk, just follow me."

Ichigo got up from his bed, and when he hit the ground, he realized how shaky his legs were. He was forced to bolster them with reishi simply to avoid falling on his face. Bambietta took note of this, and smiled to herself.

"I think you'll fit right in, Ichigo." She had noticed how easily he performed Blut, a technique that often remained elusive to many Quincies, and difficult to most of the ones that _did_ manage it.

Through the open door, Ichigo noticed a sign hung up in the hallway. Cyniqu's, it said.

_Why the hell am I in a cafe?_ He thought, somewhat confusedly.

Ichigo walked out the door, his Blut Vene disappearing after a few moments, and into the parlor. It was odd to be dressed as he was; A simple white t-shirt and loose-fitting slacks, it just wasn't what he was used to. For now, Ichigo obstinately refused to think of who had undressed and redressed him. He really didn't need to know that, lest his future or present relationship with that person be forever scarred.

He stepped into the parlor, and was met with an interesting sight. Haschwalt was there, sitting on top of a table with his legs crossed, quietly chatting with a bald man, presumably the Royd Lloyd he had heard about.

Royd was indeed bald and tattooed, with a pair of headphones covering his ears and dressed in the standard Quincy garb: A double-breasted trench coat with a halter to go over it. Royd also seemed to have added a hood to the back of his jacket, however. His eyes were startlingly bright, even the white sclera of his eyes seeming pronounced somehow. His irises were also strangely colorless, being, if anything, a very pale crystal-blue, separated from his sclera by a thin black line.

Bazz-B was in the corner, with a strange dark-pink Mohawk on his head. His face looked a lot like Ichigo's own, surprisingly, except his chin wasn't as sharp and the overall shape of his head was rounder. He was also dressed in Quincy garb, except his trench coat had been cut at the thigh, presumably in order to limit it's clumsiness. The white gloves were also missing, replaced with fireproof rubber ones in instead.

Meninas, true to Giselle's- Gigi's- word, had a head of bright purple, lightly curled hair. Unlike the others, she didn't look outlandish, and instead was merely eating a sandwich at a small table, alone. She had a simple double-breasted jacket, with puffed up shoulders with frilled endings... Come to think of it, much of her outfit had frills. He skirt ended in a frilly pattern, her gloves, and even her boots. An odd fashion statement, but a statement nonetheless.

An odd bunch, all things considered. Ichigo didn't mind it all that much because, as he said earlier, insanity was a thing he fit well into.

"Hey, boss-man, Kurosaki wanted to meet the gang!" Giselle exclaimed proudly.

Haschwalt broke away from his conversation and sent a warm smile over to Ichigo. "Was there something you needed, Kurosaki-san?"

"Yeah, I wanted to know why you operate out of a cafe..." That wasn't all that was on his mind, but right now, Ichigo wanted to break the ice with a bit of small talk.

"Ah, Cyniqu's, I quite like that name. I built this cafe several years ago, back when we numbered twenty-seven in total. As you may have noticed, there is an extensive underground complex underneath the building, but we have had no use for it since... Since most of us were killed." Haschwalt fell silent for a moment, as if to clear his mind of bad memories. "The name is quite witty, actually, it's an anagram for Quincy. Simply rearrange the letters in Cyniqu, and that's your answer. So, to answer your question, I operate here because it's a quiet town, and I quite like the aesthetics of a tea-house."

That was... A lot more than what Ichigo expected, but he took it in stride. Lengthy explanations seemed to be the norm recently.

"Uh huh. Oh, and drop the honorific, please, it's real stuffy."

The Sternritter Commander let his smile drop just a little bit.

"Of course, Ichigo."

The others remained totally silent, and Ichigo struggled for something to say. Finally, after a few minutes of intense silence and scrutiny, he remembered that he still had the Vizard to speak to.

"Right, Haschwalt, do you have a training ground or something?"

"Yes, we do. It's down the hall and the third door on your right. We have signs that should point you in the right direction from there."

_This place is big enough to need signs?_

Ichigo gave his thanks and walked down the halls, Giselle watching him as he left.

"What a weird guy." She murmured under her breath, her voice edged more with curiosity than anything else.

Coincidentally, just as he reached the door Haschwalt told him to go through, he ran into Shinji.

"Oh, hey Shinji. Haschwalt provided us with a training ground if you wanna get started, I was just gonna check it out myself."

Shinji checked his watch, mainly to see if he could spare an hour, and mainly to see if he had time to watch his favorite television show afterward.

"Sure, that's fine. I'll check it out too."

* * *

><p><em>Kisuke's Room<em>

Shortly after Kisuke finished putting up a sound-proof Kido barrier, he sat down at a table and acknowledged the cat also in the room.

"Ichigo's made himself to be the Soul Society's public enemy. Doesn't that mess with your _plans_, Kisuke?" Yoruichi seemed to say that word with a small amount of hatred. Yoruichi loved Kisuke like a brother, but he was too manipulative for his own good sometimes.

"Not at all. The six Quincies here are about as strong as Captains and high-level Lieutenants, and they haven't been affected by Aizen's Shikai yet. We've captured Zaraki, and it really won't take much convincing to have him on our side, and once we have Zaraki, we have almost the entire eleventh division. Our combat forces are about half as strong, but also immune to the illusions that Aizen can put up."

"You've really thought this through, haven't you, Kisuke?"

Kisuke let a small smile bloom on his face. "Of course I have, I wouldn't be much of a genius if I hadn't."

"What about Ichigo's hollow? He's a human, won't that make it a different treatment process than if he was a Shinigami?" Yoruichi inquired.

"Yeah, it'll be different, but things are going to be okay. I know the other Vizards didn't notice, but he's already begun the subjugation process. The rest should be a cinch."

"I hope you're right, Kisuke." Yoruichi looked out the window with forlorn eyes. "I really hope you are."

* * *

><p>While Ichigo and the Vizards trained, while Uryu and Rukia did the same, and while Kisuke and Yoruichi were discussing their plans, the Sternritters prepared to send out a team. An Adjuchas-class hollow had been drawn in by all the reiatsu this particular building was emanating. Team two, Meninas and Bazz-B, were sent to take it down.<p>

"There's the ugly bastard." Bazz-B spotted the hollow, large and crab-like, wandering around some empty fields. "I'm gonna have fun killing you."

"Quiet down now, Bazz-B." Meninas uttered softly as she formed a blade of reishi.

Unlike Ichigo or Uryu, who had less-than-perfect reishi control, the weapons the Sternritters created were solid and material-looking, not bright blue. This perfect control came at the cost of power, but also allowed them to create a significantly wider array of objects and weapons to work with.

Meninas' blade was sharp and honed, and was looking more like a thin scimitar than anything else. Bazz-B, on the other hand, had settled for a swirling orb of reishi flames. They moved in immediately on the crab-hollow, cutting through the air with the efficiency of a plane's wing.

The purple-haired Sternritter hit the ground running and pushed ahead to the hollow. It swung at her with red bone-arms, but she merely dodged under the strike and severed the limb in it's entirety. Bazz-B rushed in shortly after, spewing flames, and crashed onto the crab-hollow's armored carapace. He concentrated his fire and sent it crashing through the hollow's armor as a bright orange beam of energy.

The hollow roared in pain, and swept up at the Sternritter with it's pincer. In it's agony, it forgot that there was also a second adversary to contend with. Meninas dissipated her blade and focused reiryoku into her arm.

"This might just kill you, Hollow." Meninas focused roughly ten percent of her already-overwhelming power into that arm, and rushed ahead.

She slammed her fist into the hollow, and relished the feeling when most of it's body exploded into a fine red mist, as well as innumerable amounts of crab guts. Meninas' partner jumped into the air a moment before she struck, thus saving him from mucking up his uniform.

A good thing, too, because he hated doing laundry.

"Not too difficult, was it?"

"No, it was merely an Adjuchas. We couldn't have expected a challenge."

"It's still boring-" Bazz-B was cut off when a huge garganta opened in the sky.

To both the Quincies' surprise, a half-dozen Menos Grande streamed out of the hole, one of which having a slightly different mask than the others. So one of the evolved Gillians was leading the others into battle? Odd, but not entirely uncommon. The two Sternritters immediately readied their weapons; Bazz-B with another one of his flaming orbs, and Meninas with twin handguns that pulsed blue.

"I love my job. I ever tell ya that, Meninas?"

"Every single day, Bazz-B."

Meninas took off in a series of upward jumps, propelling herself off reishi platforms as she went. Her partner was under her, opting for speed instead of height, and rushing with _hirenkyaku_. Ostensibly, the arsonist reached his target first, and immediately set about his job.

Bazz-B charged an attack with his right fist, pulling reishi into his palm and converting it into flame, while the Menos lumbered clumsily over to him. One got within range, and the Sternritter grinned savagely. He released the beam, sending out an explosive blast of energy towards the first Menos. To his satisfaction, it crashed against the hollow's mask and exploded, instantly taking a huge chunk off the beast's head.

Meanwhile, Meninas threw herself off one of her platforms and began firing with her twin handguns, aiming for the Menos with the unique mask. Said mask somewhat resembled a clown's visage, with the stark contrast of it's nose, which was non-existent instead of bright red. The first shot connected with brutal force, blowing off a large chunk of the hollow's mask. The second blew a hole in it's shoulder, and the third severed it's right arm entirely.

She made a platform under her feet and rushed dead ahead, guns literally blazing. Somewhere along the way, one of the hollows grabbed her with it's huge, pale white hand. Bazz-B immediately severed the arm connected to the hand, and Meninas burst out of that clenched fist with a single punch while the limb fell to the ground.

The arson-Sternritter set to work on the others, rushing into the air to meet them dead on. A _cero_ was fired at him along the way, but the trained Quincy merely batted the attack aside as if it were a tennis ball instead of a deadly wave of energy. He reached the mask of the first Menos and pumped a huge amount of energy into his right hand.

The hollow opened it's mouth to charge a _cero_, but Bazz-B simply slammed his fist into the creature's forehead. Bright orange flames exploded out the monster's skull, illuminating the darkness for all of thirty seconds.

In those thirty seconds, Meninas finished gunning down the unique Menos, as well as the unfortunate being that had grabbed her, and rushed ahead to deal with the remaining two. She reformed both her pistols into a bow, one that was as solid as the weapons it was made from. She formed an arrow and nocked it, aiming for one of the Menos' skull.

She released a massive rod of bright blue light at the same time Bazz-B shot out his own bolt of flame. The two remaining hollows were dispatched within milliseconds of one another, and the Sternritters who had done the job were already headed home by the time their corpses began to dissipate.

"Too damned easy, huh?" Bazz-B said to no one as he walked down the road.

Unfortunately, combat wouldn't remain quite as easy for them. In fact, the Soul Society would make sure that it was downright horrifying for the Quincies.

* * *

><p><strong>AN**

**So the Sternritters are here now. I originally intended to make a bunch of OC's, but eventually I realized that, hey, I didn't need to, because the characters I needed were already right there. I'm trying to simulate their personalities and how they would have been without Juha Bach's influence, so Bambietta isn't all that sadistic and Giselle's insanity is now harmless, etc. etc. I've also reworked their powers, so while Meninas is still as strong as ever, it's not some unique superpower. Giselle can't make people into zombies and Royd can't transform into people. Bambietta still likes blowin' stuff up though...**

**Tell me how I did, and I'm sorry for the massive dialogue things and convoluted explanations, it had to be done sometime, and the tenth chapter is as good as any.**


	12. Mission and Resolution

**A/N  
><strong>

*** New Update ***

**I have a poll for the upcoming Christmas gift. Yeah, I know some people celebrate Hannukah or Kwanza or whatever, but you get this gist of it. Vote on the choices presented, or suggest your own, either way, a gift is gonna be made whether you like it or not. Suggestions made via PM, please. If there's a tie or inconclusive data, I'll just make a non-canon omake.**

*** Update over ***

**Ah, fuck you internet!**

**Sorry, this is the third time I've rewritten this note, because my damn proxy server isn't working. Oh, and by the way, what the hell is a proxy server and how do I make it work? SCREW YOU SCIENCE!**

**Giselle's name, for those who are struggling to pronounce it. Jeh-Zell Jeh-Well. (Giselle Gewelle). Ji-Ji (Gigi)**

* * *

><p>Zangetsu struck. Ichigo dodged.<p>

"Too close!" Ichigo shouted as he jumped backward.

The Hollow merely leered at him and slung it's freakishly long black _daito_ over it's shoulder. Without so much as a shout, it charged ahead, already stabbing away at Ichigo before he even came into range. Taking a card from his newly found Sternritter friends, he created a large revolver in his hands and fired, immediately blowing off his enemy's arm.

The Hollow didn't give so much as a yelp of pain, and it's arm was regenerated just a moment later. Zangetsu moved ahead to strike, blade flying. Ichigo dodged away, but not quickly enough; a long but thankfully thin gash, reaching from his hip to his abdomen, was opened up. The Quincy groaned, and ducked down to avoid being beheaded.

"I wish you'd just die, Hollow." Ichigo shrouded his entire right arm in searing blue armor. "Because you're a pain in the ass!" The Quincy shouted and slammed his armored fist into his opponent's gut simultaneously, immediately blowing away it's lower body.

Ichigo kicked the other half of the Hollow away before it could hit the ground, and fell to his knees, strength temporarily expended.

A demonic voice rang through the room, and past the dust cloud that had been created by the monster's impact.

_"My name is Zangetsu! Quit callin' me Hollow!"_

"Screw you, you're a freaking hollow! You have a mask and everything." Ichigo spoke the last line with a deadpan delivery.

Zangetsu growled in anger and rushed forward, black blade swinging down. Ichigo parried the strike with one hand, reinforcing his fist and grabbing the blade, and struck with the other. With deadly efficiency, Ichigo dismembered the Hollow. The Monster's right arm had been splattered on the ground, the blade it had clutched now in Ichigo's own.

"I have your sword, Hollow."

The creature grinned._ "So you have my zanpakuto, big deal, I'll just make another one!" _To Ichigo's utter horror, the creature summoned forth an exact copy of Ichigo's newly acquired weapon- Except where his was almost impossibly black, Zangetsu's was a blinding white.

They charged.

Ichigo struck first, but his attack was sloppy. He had used blades for most of his career as a Quincy, but while the movements and attacks came easily, he was unaccustomed to the weight and balance of an actual blade. Reishi could hardly be compared to cold steel.

Within in instant, Ichigo felt the muscles and ligaments of his left arm tear and rip, and even burn under the searing white of Zangetsu's blade. Ichigo cried out in pain, and jumped back, his bow-arm hanging uselessly by his side. Blood dripped and poured from the injury, splattering onto the ground. Each droplet seemed to make a massive, morbid noise.

_"This is your last day, King. If you can't find out how to use my damn powers, I swear to God right now, I will kill you."_ The Hollow's grin widened. _"I'm dyin' in that wasteland you call a mind. Better pull me out of the stone soon, King Arthur."_

"What the hell does that mean!?" His question was in vain, for Zangetsu launched forward a moment later.

Ichigo raised his zanpakuto- A sensation that was alien and awkward to him- and met his enemy's attack. Within an instant, another gaping wound was opened, this time splitting his chest open. He stumbled back, but the Hollow was relentless. Ichigo's left eye was taken out of commission, punctured and nearly impaled, and a small cut had opened across his forehead. Bright crimson overtook his vision, leaving him blind.

The Hollow's grin widened, and it rushed ahead, stabbing forward. Ichigo was impaled through the chest, the white _daito_ only barely missing his heart. Blood splattered onto the zanpakuto, but the instant it made contact, it evaporated into a dark red vapor. Zangetsu jerked the sword upward, a movement unseen to the now blinded Ichigo, causing even more internal damage.

Ichigo forced power into his fist and slammed it into Zangetsu's mouth, shattering through a face-full of teeth as he did.

"Bite me, you monster." Ichigo released the growing orb, immediately blowing off Zangetsu's head with a wave of blue energy.

To no one's surprise, Zangetsu's skull regenerated with ease.

To Ichigo's surprise, it was vastly different.

_"With pleasure, King!"_

Zangetsu's jaws, now filled with razor-sharp teeth, and accompanied by deadly-looking horns to boot, slammed down on Ichigo's hand, immediately severing it from the rest of the Quincy's body. Ichigo screamed in agony and jumped back, the blood in his right eye temporarily clearing away. Then, Ichigo saw his own hand, severed and bloody, lying on the sinister metal tiles of the Sternritter HQ.

"YOU BASTARD!" Ichigo shouted and ran ahead, his zanpakuto held firm in his fist.

With a clean, quick motion, Zangetsu's limbs were severed. All four of them.

_"Ow, King. That really hurt."_

Yet, the Hollow's head was only grinning. The reason was evident very soon.

A bright, swirling red _cero_ was gaining mass, and it was aimed directly at Ichigo's decimated body. However, Ichigo's instinct-fueled mind knew the remedy almost immediately. With a swipe, Zangetsu's twin set of horns was severed, and the crimson orb of reiryoku exploded with enough force to destroy a mountain.

It was a good thing that both Ichigo and the room he was standing in was stronger than a mountain.

The Quincy slammed against a back wall, shattering his own bones almost instantly. Blood shot from his mouth and onto the ground, but right now, pain was the furthest thing from his mind. Ichigo slid to the ground and clutched at his chest, feeling a growing... Sensation. It wasn't pain, it wasn't pressure, and while it certainly didn't feel good, it wasn't bad either. It was just a... Sensation.

Ichigo felt something tear away, rip into two, but his body wasn't the source.

It was his _soul_.

Ichigo's spectral body launched away from his physical one, his appearance an exact mirror of the corpse he had just abandoned. Except his injuries were gone, and his strength was coming off in waves, uninhibited by any sort of meat shell. A blue firestorm of reiryoku, flecked with black, enshrouded the Quincy. At the moment, Ichigo felt light, strong, fast, and completely uninhibited.

It was then that he looked down at his chest, and the odd broken chain dangling from it. It was a chain Ichigo had seen only once before, when he had pulled it from his chest in a desperate bid to avoid death.

The firestorm was parted for a moment, allowing Zangetsu passage. Now in his simple albino form, instead of his crimson-devil-like form, he crouched down and looked Ichigo in the eye. Yellow to brown, his gaze was a burning cauldron that would have made even the bravest man shiver in fear. It was a good thing that Ichigo wasn't strictly human, wasn't it.

"I'm... Out of my body..." In disbelief, Ichigo slammed his fist into the dense metal walls enclosing the training ground. Now that his powers were uninhibited by a meat-shell, his strength was effectively tripled. The wall exploded in a shower of shrapnel, but none of it came close to injuring Ichigo.

"Hollow- Zangetsu, I mean. What the hell is this?"

As was the case for any time Zangetsu made an effort to talk to him, pain and revulsion exploded in the back of his eyes, blinding him with pain.

_"You discovered your Soul Form. Normally I'd get mad at ya for half-assing things, I mean, if you're gonna discover some new power, why discover a power that only makes you stronger and faster? Why not find something that makes you really bad-ass, like a Hollow Ma-"_ Zangetsu cut himself off. _"But whatever, it's a start. You have one more week, King. Use it wisely, King; You're a pretty smart guy!"_

Did Ichigo just get complimented... By a hollow? Today was a weird day.

Then, seemingly from out of nowhere, Zangetsu materialized a wooden badge with a skull-motif on it. He threw it at Ichigo, and the Quincy caught it with ease.

_"Use that Combat Pass whenever ya wanna separate from that meat-shell of yours. Seeya."_

With that, the feelings of vile revulsion and pain faded away. Zangetsu was gone.

* * *

><p>"Hello, Zaraki-san!" Urahara's voice was jovial and cheerful- irritatingly so.<p>

Kenpachi only grunted to acknowledge his presence, still getting a feel for his newly discovered disability. The lack of a right hand was a very odd sensation to Kenpachi, but if he had subsided one-handed for this long, he'd go on for a little longer.

"Zaraki-san..." Peering out from under his smiling face and bucket hat, Urahara carefully analyzed the Captain.

"What do ya want, Bucket-Hat?" The Captain growled.

"Just wanted to know how you're feeling." Kisuke admitted.

"Bored." Was Kenpachi's solitary, irritated answer.

Kisuke smiled. "I have a small proposal for you, Zaraki-san." Kisuke paused to clear his throat. "Join me and fight against the Soul Society."

"Can't. Yachiru's there, and if I rebel, she'll die." That was Kenpachi, about as blunt and tough as most metal pipes.

"Ah, and what if I were to send a team to extract Lieutenant Kusajishi from the Seireitei?"

Kenpachi looked Kisuke in the eye, mainly to see whether or not the man was lying.

"Get Yachiru over here, and then we talk."

Kisuke's smile widened. "I wouldn't have it any other way, Zaraki-san."

* * *

><p>Ichigo stepped into his body, marveling at the fact that the pain had dissipated, and his arm had regrown. He had a feeling that Zangetsu had something to with that, but bor now, the Quincy wouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth. Ichigo still found that his body smelled distinctly like Hollow.<p>

Oh well, Zangetsu had half-repaired his dying body, so all was forgiven.

The room was hot, unbearably so. Ichigo was also weak, mainly from the extraordinary blood loss he had suffered, and if it weren't for the massive amount of reishi in his veins, he would have collapsed, gone into shock, and died in an instant. So, he walked out of the room and towards Cyniqu's resident clinic, where they'd hopefully have a few blood bags on hand.

_I should probably figure out what Blood Type I have first, though._ Yes, that was probably necessary.

Ichigo stepped out the door and into the hall, being greeted by a wandering pair of Sternritters as soon as he left.

"Hi! Ichi-chan!" Giselle, the infinitely, annoyingly, suffocatingly peppy girl whose grin never seemed to die away.

"Hey, Ichigo. You okay, you're clothes are a little..." Bambietta trailed off, noting Ichigo's charred, ripped, and bloodied clothing.

"Aw, don't tell him, Bambi-Chan, I think he looks cute this way." Giselle's grin turned cheeky, and Ichigo paled slightly.

"Gigi, he's covered in blood. You like that sorta thing?" Bambietta's voice was filled with caustic sarcasm.

"Of course I do! I think it looks cool!"

Giselle's partner remained silent, although the way her gaze was _slowly_ sliding away from her partner's seemed to say everything.

Ichigo rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly, and he had a small grin on his face.

"Yeah, well, I'm headin' to the doctor's office. I'm kinda more reishi than blood right now."

Giselle's gaze turned to stone, but the _slightly_ insane Quincy's reply was cut off before it could begin. And by Bambietta, no less.

"Get going. Now. If you wait any longer, you're heart's gonna stop."

Ichigo's grin grew a little wider and a little bit more sheepish.

"Yeah... It's done that twice now." The Quincy's tone sounded appeasing, but who the hell did he have to appease?

"Go. Now." 'Bambi-Chan', for all the childish nicknames her partner came up with, had a fierce persona to accompany them.

A small drop of sweat rolled down Ichigo's forehead, most certainly because of the heat emanating from the training room, and _definitely_ not because of the strangely intimidating woman in front of him.

"Yeah, I'll go do that." Ichigo spared a final glance at the woman. "Right now." The Quincy scooted off at a rapid pace, leaving the two girls behind.

"Aw, Bambi-Chan, you scared off another one! You'll never find a boyfriend if you keep this up."

"...Shut up, Gigi."

Ichigo turned the corner and entered the doctor's office. As usual, it was unattended, but there was still a rather large supply of medicine and remedies in the corner. Ichigo took a number of gauze rolls, and immediately wrapped his wounds. His movements were slow and clumsy, and the disinfectant sprayed on the bandage gave a searing sting, but all in all he was an effective field medic.

He took another roll of rougher, thicker material, and bound the gauze down, preventing it form slipping off him, and grabbed a bottle of anti-sepsis pills. Simply wouldn't do if he got a blood-infection and died this early in life. He took an inordinate amount of the medicine, probably exceeding the necessary dosage, and moved onto the next phase of treatment.

He suffered from several second and third degree burns, many of which should have killed him three times over, but instead opted to leave him scarred for life. Or he _would_ have been left scarred to death, if Ryuuken wasn't such a freaking medical genius. Uryu had left him some sort of ointment that could effectively close wounds, without leaving scars to mark their presence. Apparently, it used stem cells and the like to do it's work...

Ichigo didn't care as long as it got him healed.

He rubbed the gel-like ointment over his injuries, and the effect was quick and speedy. His burn wounds bound themselves shut, and his skin was left unmarred. Now, all that was left was the question of what blood type he was.

"Damn it all!"

In a fit of frustration, Ichigo emptied his pockets and began rifling through the medical records kept on hand. Sure enough, after a few minutes, he found his medical records. It was a good thing Haschwalt was so meticulous about this, or else he might have resorted to sticking any old type of blood in his body. And Rejection Syndrome was never a pretty sight.

_A Positive_ the document read.

Without a second thought, Ichigo grabbed a liter of blood and shoved a needle in his arm. Within a few minutes, the searing reishi covering his heart fled away, replaced by good, down-to-earth human blood. Just as well too, another half-hour spent like that would have burned his blood vessels to ash, and turned his inner organs into a broiling mess.

His injuries were patched, and his blood was pure.

Still, his clothes were still bloodied and torn, and his skin was still as blood-splattered as ever.

"Why the hell is cleaning up such a chore?!" Ichigo asked himself, irritated.

* * *

><p><em>Seireitei, two days later<em>

"Kuchiki-Taichou is a confirmed death. His reiatsu signature disappeared seven days ago, and has yet to reappear. Kurotsuchi-Taichou and Zaraki-Taichou are missing, but their reiatsu has occasionally been sensed at sporadic intervals." Without any emotion or hesitation, Nemu Kurotsuchi explained the situation to the various Captains and Lieutenants gathered.

Silence spread it's villainous hold across the crowd, and they froze up.

It had began with a simple mission: Kill Ichigo Kurosaki. A simple mission it should have remained, too. Three unsealed, merciless Captains against a single human with Lieutenant-level strength. All in all, it should have been a cinch.

Except, the boy had allies.

_Lots_ of allies. Whether it be the Vizards, a group that Mayuri had sent a report about just a few minutes before he went dark, or the Shinigami who had defected to join him, or even the _teenage boy_ who had already stared death in the face a dozen times for his sake. Really, that boy's charisma attracted followers like a light attracted flies.

The worst part was that the boy didn't even seem to _want_ followers; he treated every one of them with equal parts disdain and sarcasm.

So when the trio of Captains went to hunt them down, they instead fought toe-to-toe with two individual soldiers who were at least well above the average Captain's strength. And while Byakuya and Kenpachi were above that average, it seemed that those two even succeeded past even that standard. This was the major factor the Soul Society didn't take into consideration: The Quincy's sheer force of will, that kind of force that gravitated allies.

"What are we gonna do about Ken-Chan?" Yachiru's voice was no longer bubbly. It was downright morose... And that alone shocked most of the people in this room.

_Yachiru, sad?!_ Renji thought as he clammed up.

Truth be told, even though he was a Shinigami through and through, Renji was beginning to lose his loyalty. Kuchiki-Taichou was dead now, and with his demise went his drive to become strong. He had attained his strength in order to surpass Byakuya... But with his death, that was no longer possible. That aside, Rukia was also on his mind. Rukia, who had betrayed the only home and faction to ever welcome her, just for a human.

That left his loyalty shaking and his resolve strengthening. The inevitable conclusion would be his abandonment of the Gotei Thirteen, and his defection to the other side. At this point, it was merely a matter of time.

"Zaraki-Taichou has been confirmed to be held prisoner, or at least significantly wounded. His position has not changed at all in the two days we have been monitoring him, but as of this moment, it would be foolish to attempt a rescue." Nemu elaborated further.

"Why?" Yachiru cried out in anger.

"He is surrounded by very powerful forces, likely the Vizards that Kurotsuchi-Taichou warned us about. Attempting to retake him would cause at least sixty-percent casualties even among a ten-man invasion team composed of Captains and Lieutenants. It is simply impossible."

Yachiru had no reply for that one, and instead remained completely silent.

"What of Kurotsuchi-Taichou? Has he been found?" Unohana asked with all the gentleness of a noblewoman.

"No. Kurotsuchi-Taichou's reiatsu appears at times, but it is as if it has been scattered all over a twenty-mile radius, making it difficult to pin-point his location."

That was... Odd. Perhaps the Captain had used his weird goo-form thingy and had been splattered all over Japan. Supposedly he could move in that form, but the specifics were weird, and it was entirely possible he could have spread out significantly because of it. That still left the question of how he would ever return to a solid shape, but hey, another story for another time.

Aizen was in deep contemplation. With the Soul Society's effective strength cut by a third, and their men demoralized and panicked, now would be the perfect time to strike and kill. Truly, if he took it upon himself to start a coup d'état, he would likely emerge with victory... Provided that he assassinated the Head Captain beforehand.

Yet, it was equally likely that instead of panicking and disbanding, the Seireitei would rally together in this time of strife and cut him down. Besides that, even if he came away with victory, he'd be left with severe injuries and the need to control or destroy an entire city. Either would be met with extreme difficulty. In turn, a direct assault by either Urahara or any leftover Shinigami would see him dead in an instant.

"Aizen-Taichou!" Someone shouted, thus catching the man's attention.

"Yes, what is it?" In his most cordial voice, the bespectacled Captain turned to his subordinate- Who had just busted down the door to get into the Captain's meeting hall.

"There's an invasion force! There're at least ten, and they breached through the Blue Stream Gate! They're on a warpath right towards us!"

That was shocking news, very shocking news indeed. Most of the hall was shocked beyond relief- And this had to happen now? It had to happen when all their forces were focused in one area, and the city ready to be destroyed.

"All Captains move out to destroy the attackers! Show no mercy and destroy them on sight. All Lieutenants report to your barracks, do not let a single attacker inside!" Yamamoto's booming, vindictive voice filled the others with some semblance of confidence. The group almost immediately scrambled towards their respective objectives.

"Please, report back to the barracks. I have work to do." Aizen told his quavering subordinate. "Good work in relaying this information to us."

"Y-yes, Aizen-Taichou!"

_So it seems they're making this attack a lot sooner than I expected. The fools, they're nowhere near strong enough._

"I'll kill them." Aizen whispered under his breath.

* * *

><p>"Remember, we only need to get Yachiru out of there, avoid all other forms of contact!" Shinji, taking the role of Urahara's mouthpiece, yelled to his comrades.<p>

"That sucks! Why can't I murder a couple of these Shinigami bastards?!" Hiyori's agitation was easily sensed.

Shinji didn't bother with a rebuttal, and instead focused on carving a path right for the eleventh division barracks. To his right, Ichigo, Rukia, Love, and Lisa. To his left, Hiyori, Mashiro, and Rose. Directly behind him, Uryu, Bambietta, Giselle, Bazz-B, and Meninas. Even the humans could join in on this journey, thanks to Urahara's particle-conversion machine thingy. Haschwalt had jumped on the opportunity to deal a critical blow to the Shinigami; they had committed various atrocities against the Sternritters so many times.

Hachi had stayed behind to speed up Kensei's recovery; the Vizard's condition was stabilized, but very far from battle-ready, unlike Love who had recovered swiftly and fully.

Shinigami would be coming in soon at this rate, and they'd be arriving en masse if the group wasn't careful. The eleventh division wasn't far away, but extracting Yachiru from a warzone- and the Eleventh Division barracks would definitely be one- was gonna be one hell of a bitch. Casualties were a very likely reality if they weren't extremely careful.

Ichigo took the lead, and Uryu and Rukia followed after. The Sternritters reluctantly took after them after a few moments.

"We're gonna go make a distraction! Get Yachiru the hell outta here!" Ichigo called back, his signature dual blades already materialized.

"Yeah! Let's go murder those bastards!" Bazz-B screeched in joy.

"...Calm down." Meninas was swift to reply.

The group broke away, cutting straight ahead towards the focus point of the reiatsu signatures, leaving the Vizards to take care of this mission's actual objective. Shinji's grin widened slightly. Ichigo seemed so much like a young version of himself, it was actually kinda scary. The others thought the same, although their grins were, let's say, less than pleased.

Shinji let them be and moved dead ahead, honing in on the barracks. At times, Shinigami would attempt to slow their advance, but the Vizards cut them down without mercy and moved on, leaving no survivors in their path. Unlike Ichigo and Uryu, they were unafraid to kill; warfare had hardened their morals to an iron shell. Very rarely did they feel guilt over the deaths they caused, and that feeling was further mitigated when the fact that they would be reborn came into their minds.

With a single, well-executed slash, another Shinigami was disemboweled and dropped to the floor, dead before he even hit the ground. Shinji's face was stoic, and the same applied to all others. They neither took joy in murder, nor did they regret it. Like a machine, the Vizards advanced at full-speed, and woe to any who got in their way.

It was unfortunate that Gin Ichimaru, Captain of the Third, made it his mission to halt Ichigo's progress. Appearing at the top of a very tall white tower, he peered down at the scuttling soldiers and leveled his blade at them.

_"Shoot to kill."_ Gin Ichimaru, an utterly evil and disconcerting man, pointed his blade at a rapidly moving group of invaders. _"Shinso."_

His blade shot like a bullet, glowing a piercing white and ripping through the air. The group of attackers- a predominant white color scheme, with only one member dressed in black- froze and faced the oncoming strike.

One of them, with a ridiculous head of orange hair, pushed ahead to block the assault with two long, thin blades. Gin's smile faltered. He could feel the power in those blades even from here; if he didn't pull back his attack, his only weapon was sure to shatter under the stress. Sure enough, the Quincy-boy pulled one of his weapons back, raised it above his head, and slashed down; he had effectively shaved off Shinso's tip with a single strike.

With a disappointed frown, Gin retracted his blade down to it's wakizashi length, and looked to the Quincy. His eyes opened slightly, and his icy blue glare seemed to pierce through Ichigo.

"Go. I've got snake-eyes here." Ichigo told his comrades as he stared Gin down.

"Right. We'll push to the Captain's hall." Rukia, being the only one who knew of the Seireitei's layout, took the lead and gave them directions.

Ichigo grinned, pooled an inordinate amount of reishi into his feet, and launched himself towards the Captain, almost simultaneously.

_Almost._

In that brief instant it took for Ichigo to prepare his movements, Gin had already released Shinso once more. Even without a tip capable of piercing through flesh, it was a deadly weapon. Ichigo swayed his head to the right, barely avoiding decapitation.

"You bastard!" The Quincy shouted as he rocketed towards Gin. "I'll kill you!"

Both of Ichigo's reishi-blades shattered at once, sending a blue wave of energy flying towards the Third Division Captain. To add more fuel to the flame, Ichigo recreated his weapons and shattered them as well, sending an unending onslaught of reishi tearing into the Captain.

Within no time at all, he reached his opponent's perch. He forged a new set of twin blades and braved the blue firestorm he created- to no one's surprise, he walked through unscathed. It was _his_ energy, after all. In no time at all, he found the Third Division Captain, whose smiling face would have left most shivering in fear.

Ichigo, however, had stared down worse threats. Like a hollow that came from his _own fucking soul._

"My my, aren't we excited." Gin, in the most ridiculous, formal, and condescending tone made Ichigo want to rip something's throat out. Namely, the silvery-snake-man in front of him.

"Shut up." Ichigo voice was deadly silent as he launched ahead, both his blades spinning.

Gin parried the first strike effortlessly, using his wakizashi to clash with Ichigo's sword and angling his blade's shattered tip at Ichigo's chest.

Eyes alight with rage, Ichigo stabbed his second sword past Gin's weak defenses and cut through his flesh with practiced ease. Ichigo ducked down and chopped at his opponent's knees, one blade still inside his enemy and the other moving at incredible speeds. Within a mere moment, Gin felt the flesh on both his legs get severed, and he nearly fell to the ground.

"It was lucky I jumped back, or I might've lost my legs there!" Gin's voice, eerily cheery, was almost disconcerting.

"Shut. Up." The Quincy pushed forward, having reforged the both of his blades into twin-suns of radiating blue energy.

Gin figured now was a good a time as any to start taking this fight seriously; lest he be killed before he even got a shot in. Ichigo released dual _cero_ beams, both attacks uninhibited by either a body or a chained Hollow soul. The Captain grinned in the face of oncoming death.

Gin vanished and reappeared behind Ichigo, his blade leveled at the boy's lower back.

_"Shoot to kill."_

Sharp, vibrant, piercing white agony exploded in the back of Ichigo's head, driving him to near unconsciousness. He would have gone under, too, if it hadn't been for his Hollow's timely (merciless) intervention. With a single desperate pull on his conscious mind, and a halfhearted attempt at taking control, Zangetsu restored Ichigo's mind.

The Quincy turned around and released a bright blue _cero_, tearing Gin apart with waves of heat and pressure and tossing the Captain back. Almost immediately, Gin flew back into the fray, blade flying and grin widening.

The Captain landed gracefully in front of Ichigo, swinging on a low arc to the young Kurosaki's gut. Subconsciously, he hardened his blood with Blut Vene to avoid disembowelment and launched his counter-attack, cutting a long gash down the length of Gin's shoulder. Blood spread and spewed from the wound, but for some reason, the Captain gave no indication of the pain he felt; indeed, if he felt any pain at all, Ichigo didn't know.

Gin pulled back and launched Shinso forward on a deadly path, impaling Ichigo through the right shoulder. Vibrant pain, rendered only marginally dull by the power through Ichigo's veins ripped through him. Once more, it took Zangetsu's quick intervention to prevent a loss of consciousness.

It was odd, Gin's zanpakuto seemed to amplify the pain that it would naturally cause. It was as if the blade was coated in some sort of poison that amplified the pain signals a user received... Because Ichigo had never been this dangerously close to passing out; years of open combat had wore his pain receptors down, and left his skin with only a dull ache whenever he received a cut, and a painful sting if it was a deep injury. Shinso, however, ignored that, and left him with vibrant explosions of agony every time the blade pierced his flesh.

"Don't take your eyes off a battle, Ichigo-san." With malevolence creeping into his voice, he slashed Ichigo diagonally across the chest.

With a startled groan of pain, Ichigo stepped back- and into thin air. Gin approached, devilish grin at it's most sinister, and pulled back his foot. Like a piston, he launched his leg out, catching Ichigo square in the chest and throwing him back. As Ichigo fell to the ground, his speed increasing dramatically, the snake-eyed man peered down at him.

"Bye-bye!" Was his cheerful call just as Ichigo hit the ground.

Bright white light assaulted his mind, drowning him in a symphony of pain and filling his ears with dreadful ringing. Blood rushed to his throat and out his mouth, where it tricked almost everywhere. Pain flooded his senses like the blood through his veins, which was to say, very quickly. Weakness met with resolve, and weakness won out.

Ichigo slipped into the welcoming waters of oblivion.

* * *

><p>Renji stood at a crossroad. Rukia was approaching quickly, and from the looks of it, she had already extinguished the lives of a few lower-ranked Shinigami. If she was willing to kill so early in the game, it only proved her resolve. Then why, why couldn't he make a decision? Behind him, his barracks, and by extension, his loyalty to the Seireitei. Yet, on the other hand, was the loyalty to his best and possibly last friend, the one who had gotten him here in the first place.<p>

Should he keep the chance Rukia had given him? Rukia had introduced him to this place, given him the idea of becoming a Shinigami, and supported him through it. Would she think less of him if he squandered that chance for a half-assed chance at revolution? Or should he keep his loyalty to his friend. Abandon the organization that had caused the deaths of so many, even if those deaths were by their mere neglect of the Rukon districts.

"Abarai-Fukutaichou! There's a force pushing through the barracks' gate; it won't be long before the Third and Fifth seat are killed, and they're the only ones guarding the place! We need your assistance." No name to put to the face. The person speaking could have been a friend or a total stranger, but at the moment, Renji didn't care.

"Bind the gate with Kido. Hold them back as long as possible." With a surprising amount of confidence in his voice, he issued his orders.

"Yes sir!" Relieved, the soldier went off to relay Renji's commands.

Immediately, spells and seals were applied to the gate in order to keep it from binding. The walls were reinforced to a degree as well, temporarily barring access.

_Temporarily._

It wouldn't be very long before they busted through. From the reiatsu signatures, there are at least six attackers, and their combined force was more than enough to rip apart their entire division if they didn't mind a death or two. So that left a question: Join them and survive, or fight against them and die?

Retain his loyalty and pride as a Shinigami to the end? Or survive at the cost of that loyalty, and perhaps the only home he would ever know?

"Abarai-Fukutaichou! They're starting to damage the gate!" That was the panicked cry of one of the other soldiers, whose name Renji couldn't quite recall.

A huge explosion was heard, and the gate suffered another spiderweb of cracks and fractures. Very occasionally, a blade of either reishi or cold steel would punch through the reiryoku-reinforced gate and into the heart of a Sixth Division guardsman. Very gradually, the number of troops dropped down, and soldiers hurried to take the place of the fallen.

Another wave of blue fire battered the wall into hell, and a small gout of the cursed stuff pierced through the gate. The reishi flames set at least ten men ablaze.

"We're comin' for ya, Shinigami!" A man, clearly insane, screamed from behind the gate.

A panicked guardsman turned to Renji, tears streaming down his face and with a face showing total fear and panic.

"Please, Abarai-Fukutaichou, we need help!"

Renji looked at the soldier, and his heart softened a bit. That softness faded when a hand punched through the gate, covered with a- _Are those frills?!_ -white glove that very quickly turned crimson. That hand had ripped straight through the heart of the now deceased Thirteenth seat. Thirteen was an unlucky number, and it was ironic that it was him who would be the first seated officer to fall.

"Pull back our eighth seat; he's the most skilled in kido, and have him summon a spell to contact the Captains. We need reinforcements. For now, keep on holding that gate, use Bakudo if you have to!" Renji's irate shouts quickly galvanized the remaining soldiers into action, and they set about the furious task of keeping the place secure.

A shower of blue-white arrows rained in from over the wall, instantly killed a few exposed soldiers and peppering the buildings with blue fire.

_At this rate, we'll be dead before anyone can even get here!_ Renji's panicked mind practically screamed at itself.

As if to prove his point, another storm of blue fire punched through the gate and created a chest-sized hole, and sending another gout of flame spewing into the barracks. Almost immediately, the dry-walled barracks was set aflame, as well as a huge amount of Shinigami. The screams of pain and terror were soul-rending to say the least.

As the last of the frontal guard fell dead, the gates were blown inward, and an invasion force of six soldiers rushed inside. At the very front, posing as the vanguard, Rukia was there. She walked through the blue fire created earlier as if it was little more than dirt on the ground, and looked Renji in the eye.

"Renji."

"Rukia."

For now, that was all either of them could say.


	13. Invasion

**A/N**

**Another long wait... I sure hope this isn't foreshadowing something ominous. Honestly, I think the magic's starting to wear off after these past few months. Never fear though, abandonment isn't something I resort to unless the story is absolute trash. I like to think that this isn't trash.**

**If anything, I'll at least finish up the current Story arc before moving onto something new, because I would feel both guilty and useless if I left without a conclusion of some sorts.**

**And another thing too, I don't know if you noticed, but I have a Christmas poll up, so vote now, please!**

**Oh, and I'm gonna start responding to anonymous reviews too, because, y'know, proper conduct and whatnot.**

**Writophrenic-**

Yeah, I know there's a lot of tension with Renji and Rukia right now, so hopefully this chapter resolves that. The outcome might not be what you expect, though! And yes, I am extremely evil, but I promise to limit character deaths to a certain extent. This ain't a snuff film, and I actually kinda like my cast.

But the evil side of me is gonna want to kill someone off from time to time, and no one is safe. Even Ichigo can die, so beware!

P.S. Sorry for not sending a message to your actual account earlier, you said you were locked out for some reason, so I didn't know whether or not it would be a wasted effort.

**Roydloyd-**

Ah yes, Renji is still emotionally unsure. Rukia is his friend, but right now, she's also a terrorist. What with Byakuya's death, he also lacks a motivation to stay with the Gotei Thirteen, so what will happen? Not even this vile author knows. Yes, Ichigo doesn't really have a factor in this either, as you said. Although he knows of how resolved and determined he is- He did witness him literally rip out his own heart to avoid death (ironic)- he still doesn't really know him.

Hmm, what will happen, I wonder...

* * *

><p>"Aizen-Taichou. I got Kurosaki." Gin's voice, sinister and full, spread through air.<p>

"Oh? Good work, Gin. I expected him to be more of a challenge."

"He was. The kid's pretty tough, but Shinso's Shikai has a bad habit of giving people crippling pain. He's a slippery snake, that one."

Aizen merely smiled politely as he knelt by Ichigo's unconscious body. The boy could prove to be a valuable weapon, all in all, and recruiting him wasn't all that bad of an idea. Except, there was still a major problem. He was Kisuke Urahara's student, and although that man was manipulative and insane, he was loyal to those he called friends. Even if he did successfully recruit him, Kisuke would be there to foil his plans.

So, it seemed that Ichigo's gifted head was destined for the chopping block. A shame, really. He could have been a useful tool.

"Gin. Kill him."

Gin's snake-like smile widened. Although Aizen noted that the smile never reached his eyes.

"With pleasure, Aizen-Taichou." The Captain leveled his blade at Ichigo's neck.

_"Shoot to-!"_

A gunshot filled the air, and the Snake-Captain's hand was blown off as soon as it did. Gin gave a strangled cry of agony and fell back, clutching his right hand and intensifying his reiatsu output. Another gunshot rang true, and Aizen was the next target. Eyes widened only slightly, Aizen sidestepped the shot and let it hit the ground- which exploded into fragments upon impact, creating an impossibly large crater in the ground.

"Aw, crap, I missed! This is your fault, Bambi-Chan!" That was Giselle. Very clearly Giselle.

"How the hell is it my fault?!" A cry of anger and indignation.

"Because you're a crappy spotter!"

While Gin clutched his nonexistent hand and tried to cope with the pain, Aizen let an amused smile come to his lips. So it seemed that the Seireitei's 'invaders' were little more than children. Aizen unsheathed his zanpakuto and neared Ichigo's unmoving body. The attackers' position was still unknown to him, but he called out anyway.

"Fire again, and I kill him!"

"We're not scared of you, Glasses-Chan!" The reply was swift and proud, and punctuated by another gunshot.

Aizen's right arm, the one holding Kyoka Suigetsu, was blown off entirely. Blood sprayed everywhere, but the brunt of it landed on Ichigo's body. Aizen stepped back, seething in rage. Whoever these two were, one of them was definitely a crack shot. Not good. Ah well, any lost limbs could be swiftly replaced.

"Gin, take this. It's from Mayuri's lab." Aizen tossed a small syringe over to the Third Division Captain, and took a second for himself.

"This must be the creepy bastard's growth serum." Gin noted noncommittally as he injected the serum into himself. Normally, the substance was poisonous to non-Mayuri Shinigami, but Aizen was a smart fellow, and had easily reverse-engineered it to suit his purposes.

Like some sort of lizard, Aizen's arm regrew itself with startling ease, as if this wasn't the first time it had happened. With some amount of irritation, he flexed the limb experimentally. As was the side effect of regrowing a new limb, it was weak and stiff, and would take weeks of hard exercise to recondition itself.

"Prepare to die." Was Aizen's singular response, as he honed in on his enemy's reiatsu signature. With a booming explosion of something that wasn't quite _shunpo_ or _sonido_, the Captain appeared in front of his enemies.

He had upraised his blade and sent it flying down in an instant, sending it through whatever happened to be in the way.

As it stood, Giselle was in the way.

Blinding white agony and sudden coldness closed in on her. The reiatsu-rifle she carried quickly vanished to particles, and the light faded from her eyes with surprising speed. Aizen cut through her prone form as if he were cutting a block of cheese, easily carving a long, deep gash down her back. The woman bit back a scream, and instead pushed back with a flash of light, suddenly reappearing at the edge of Aizen's peripheral vision.

Her posture was unbalanced and weak, one arm hanging limb and the other on the ground, supporting herself. Her knees were on the ground, blood-splattered and unbelievably weak, and blood was pouring off her back. Needless to say, she was in dire straits.

Also needless to say, Bambietta was pissed.

"Gigi!" She called, already reaching out to her friend.

"There's no use!" Aizen shouted as he dashed ahead, blade swinging.

In the split second she had left, Bambietta let her instincts take over. She ducked under the blade Aizen sent soaring, and packed her hand with as much reiryoku as she could manage. Hot, cutting energy bit into her flesh, very clearly unstable. She rushed ahead and _slammed_ her fist into the Captain's gut, sending him flying back.

Blood, a small but extremely noticeable amount, flew from Aizen's lips and onto the ground. The Captain's spectacles fell off his face and onto the ground, where they shattered. Underneath those glasses was a cold face that would have chilled many into submission.

It was a damn good thing that Bambietta wasn't so easily chilled. The Sternritter poured energy into her Bangle, quickly forming a long scimitar composed of reishi. Unlike many reishi-based weapons, the Sternritters were capable of creating solid objects that only gave off a faint blue light, as opposed to the swirling energy-bows that all others used.

It was partly the reason why so many of them took to guns as easily as they did, and partly the reason why they kicked so much ass.

Bambietta charged ahead, rage in her eyes and hatred in her blade. She slashed away at her enemy, who always seemed one step ahead of her in terms of raw combat power. Aizen retaliated with a simple but impossibly fast thrust of his blade, sending Kyoka Suigetsu on a deadly arc for the Sternritter's neck.

She pulled back and dodged the blade, but was quickly met with a lightning-fast assault. A deep cut was opened on her right side. A tiny graze, but the pain was immediate and noticeable, giving way to a slight stumble in the rhythm of her parrying. With a devilish grin, Aizen pushed forward and added a second hand to his blade's hilt.

Very quickly, he swung his sword and sent it carving into Bambietta's flesh. Her blue eyes widened as the cold spirit-steel of his zanpakuto cut through the side of her chest, going straight to her heart with more force than a runaway train.

"Blut Vene!" She cried out as she sent gallons of reishi flying through her veins.

The effect was sudden, leaving Aizen's blade stuck in her body and stumbling his movements. Bambietta's pained grimace turned to a smirk as she created a torrential mass of energy in her left palm.

"Licht Regen." She murmured, her face now set into a grim line.

Blue arrows, tons of them, shot from that mass of reishi, and directly through Aizen. Point blank, full power, full speed. It left little wonder as to how Aizen was so gravely injured in just a fraction of a second, leaving him ripped apart like Swiss-fucking-cheese, and sending his blood flying every-which-way.

As Bambietta's Blut Vene fell away, so did Aizen's zanpakuto, where it clattered to the ground in a blood-covered mess. Bambietta and Aizen did the same, clutching at their respective wounds. Blood was everywhere, and everywhere that wasn't stained with crimson vitae was equally pock-marked by bullet holes or scorch marks.

Unfortunately for one side of the party, rest was a commodity that was scarcely available.

_"Shoot to kill, Shinso!"_

A lightning-burst of light. A pained scream. A gunshot. All three happened almost simultaneously.

Shinso's tip, still severed thanks to a certain Kurosaki, carved it's path through the air and directly for a Sternritter's heart. The blade was still sharp and the tip still jagged; it would be more than sufficient to end the life of an undesirable.

The jagged tip met with flesh, and that gave way to bone. Just when it seemed that Bambietta would die, Giselle fired off a shot from a hastily-constructed revolver, shattering Shinso from the hilt-up. Before the broken blade hit the ground, Giselle fired off another spiritual round and blew off most of the blade that was still inside Bambietta's chest, effectively removing the steel from her ribcage.

Then the pain became too much, and both Giselle and Bambietta fell into a shock-induced coma. Hopefully it would be merely temporary coma, though.

_Hopefully._

Gin's lips curled into a distasteful frown as he eyed his broken blade. As he readied his blade for a second strike, he noticed an angry growl coming from his left side. Some rubble was pushed aside as Ichigo got to his feet.

"Ah, you're quite a restless one, Kurosaki-san."

_"Fuck you."_

* * *

><p>"Renji... I... You're my friend. I don't want to fight you... Just leave this place behind, please." Rukia's voice was filled with pain and emotion, and it wavered with each passing moment.<p>

"I can't do that Rukia. I'm a Lieutenant, and if the Sixth Division loses me, they'll lose almost all their leadership. Our third seat was killed a few minutes earlier; who would lead them?"

Rukia's eyes filled with pain, softening for just a moment.

"We're friends, aren't we?"

"Of _course_ we're friends, but no matter what, my loyalty lies with the Seireitei." With some hesitation, Renji continued. "You and your group are terrorists, and I can't join you."

That struck below the belt, but any feelings of guilt faded just as quickly as that strike. Rukia's emotions hardened and her visage toughened into an unreadable mask.

"Go, Renji. There might be a time when I change my mind, but I won't kill you. Just go, and take your men with you. We've won this fight."

Renji grabbed his zanpakuto.

"I can't do that, Rukia. We're the Sixth Division, and even if our leader is dead, we'll still fight to the last breath if it means taking care of invaders."

Rukia fell silent. Bazz-B, however, was anything but.

"Y'know, the pretty lady was nice enough to give ya a chance to run, but if you act like such a bastard..." Bazz-B's voice hardened into a low, menacing growl. "We'll gut ya like a pig."

Rukia spoke up. "Renji, you're still my friend. But so is Ichigo, and no matter what, I won't let my friends die."  
>Renji scoffed. "<em>Ichigo?!<em> What the hell is so special about him. He's strong, yeah, but he's also killed at least six Shinigami, and is-" His memories flashed back to when the boy had stood above a cowering Izuru with an upraised blade. He also remembered how easily he could have slaughtered the both of them then, but had somehow refrained from it. "-Just, tell me, is it because he looks so much like Kaien?"

Rukia let out a subconscious, menacing growl. "Ichigo saved my life, this has nothing to do with Kaien-dono!"

"Uh-huh, and how many times did I save your life when we were in the Rukon District!?"

The others began to become uncomfortable. Rukia noticed this, and very quickly turned to the three of them. Bambietta and Giselle had noticed a drop in Ichigo's reiatsu and had investigated a few minutes ago.

"Go, leave this one to me."

Immediately, the three Quincies headed out to rampage across the Seireitei, giving the as-of-yet undiscovered Vizards full range to extract Yachiru as they pleased.

Rukia blocked Renji's path, leaving him no room to stop any of the three from leaving.

"You're a friend, Renji. No matter what sides were on, that will never change." With that said, Rukia readied her blade. "Never forget that."

She charged, rushing ahead towards a very dumbstruck Renji.

With a single, fluid movement, she disarmed Renji and sent his blade flying across the courtyard. During the climax of that attack, she sent her own blade flying alongside Renji's, leaving the both of them unarmed. After stepping forward, she wrapped her arms around Renji, face burning with both fear and embarrassment at the compromising position they were in.

"Rukia..."

"Shut your stupid mouth."

They stood that way, Rukia's arms wrapped around an unmoving Renji, standing.

"What... What are you doing?"

Rukia looked up at Renji, face burning. "Renji, please, come with me. The Seireitei is corrupted, and there's only one way to stop that. I don't want to burn this place to the ground, I want to change it, I want the Shinigami to accept change instead of destroy it."

Renji was adequately confused. "What?"

"The Quincies, the Vizards, every little thing. Whenever we see something we don't like, we kill it. I don't want that, I would never want that. Please, Renji, join me- join _us_- and we can change this place."

Although Renji only had passing knowledge of what a 'Vizard' was, he knew what Rukia was talking about. He had paid little mind to it before, but he understood completely.

"And it isn't just that, either. The Rukon districts, all but the very first ones, they're all starving to death. You and I know about that, we know about what we had to do to crawl out of Inuzuri. Please, Renji, we can change things, I just need your help!"

Renji hesitated in his reply. "I... I don't..." He paused. Rukia had never quite been so outspoken, had never given such an impassioned speech. If she was willing to do such a thing, if she was willing to kill for her ideals, didn't that prove her ironclad resolve?

So then why? Why was he so weak? Why couldn't he simply make a decision?

"_No! I'm not weak. I'll make my decision... And I'll live with it."_ Renji's zanpakuto was screaming at him, even going so far as to impersonate his voice. Stupid Zabimaru.

So, with little left to lose, he made his choice.

"No. Rukia, I... I can't. I'm a Shinigami. I swore an oath to defend the Seireitei with my life, and if I abandon that, then what am I? I'll always love you like a sister, Rukia, but I can't abandon this place. Yamamoto may be an old, insensitive prick, but he's also my superior. I can't turn my back on this. I'm sorry."

Rukia pulled away from him. "I see." Her voice was morose, but not shaky. She walked away and approached the two blades she had tossed aside, and picked up the both of them.

She threw Zabimaru over to Renji, and clasped her own blade.

"How about a spar, for old time's sake?" She called out cheerfully.

Renji grinned. "You got it, ya Midget!"

Rukia groaned in mock-misery. "What the hell is up with that nickname, did you pick it up off of Ichigo?!"

With an irritated 'hmph', Renji shot forward. Rukia did the same.

When their blades clashed, both of them had given it their all, but the strength behind their blows showed not an ounce of killing intent.

They remained friends, even while fighting a war on opposite sides.

* * *

><p>The entire journey to the Squad Eleven barracks had been far too uneventful, Shinji thought. Thanks mostly in part to Ichigo's diversion, not a single soul had found them, and it seemed that extracting Yachiru would be a breeze. Kenpachi had given them his eyepatch, assuring them that it was ample proof of his cooperation and existence. It would be enough to convince Yachiru, and by extension, bring her back to the HQ. All bases covered, no loose ends.<p>

But, what they hadn't anticipated was the goddamn boredom. No Shinigami to kill, no hell to raise, just an endless run through generic white corridors that would - hopefully- lead to their destination. Hiyori was groaning on about it, Love was strangely tense, and Lisa was leafing through one of her damned swimsuit magazines while they ran.

Tensions were high, but their boredom was a bigger problem.

"Dammit, why'd ya have to volunteer for distraction duty, Ichigo, I'm freakin' bored!" Shinji called out to no one at all, hand on his sword while he moved ahead with long strides.

"You're tellin' me!" Hiyori called back.

Then, silence retook, and the five of them ran on in silence.

Boring. Extremely boring.

* * *

><p>Ichigo rushed ahead, ignoring the crippling pain that wracked his body. He formed his bow, a weapon that was oft-ignored in the face of his substantial armory, and pushed forward. With incredible speed, he swung ahead, catching the Captain down the shoulder and cutting a downward valley through that same shoulder. Blood sprayed from the injury, and for a moment, Gin's face was filled with agony. But only for a moment.<p>

The Captain pulled back and lengthened his blade- and then found that his extension only went to about an extra two feet of length. It seemed that his opponents had successfully worn his zanpakuto's blade down extensively. Noting this, he donned an eerie smile, and snapped his blade in place, reforming it's tip and sharpening the blade. Of course, now he could no longer extend or shorten his blade for some time, but compromises, right?

Ichigo pulled back his bowstring and unleashed a hail of arrows, hitting Gin with full force. When a proper storm of reishi had been roused, he rushed forward and attacked, reforging his bow into his signature German longsword.

He pushed his blade forward with both hands, sending it on a direct path for Gin's gut. However, the Captain swung his own zanpakuto and parried Ichigo's sword with deadly efficiency. His balance thrown for all of a moment, Gin shot forward and planted a fist in the boy's stomach, rocketing him backward.

Ichigo gasped as the air fled from his lungs, but he quickly regained his composure and restored his balance. He hit a wall with both feet, and shot ahead with surprising strength.

_"Zangetsu! Give me that sword you used during the training!" _Ichigo called out to his hollow.

_"I'll do ya one better, King!"_

Within his right hand, a wooden badge with a skull-motif engraved on it's surface materialized in Ichigo's hand. In his left, was the familiar black daito that had been used against him by the Hollow during their extensive training sessions. He quickly understood the purpose of both the badge and the blade.

He rushed forward and slashed the black daito at Gin, striking with his full strength. Immediately, Gin raised his blade to parry the attack- but Ichigo's sword seemed to evade his zanpakuto and circle around to cut a deep, painful gash across the Captain's neck. Blood spurted from the wound, gurgling from the wound and onto the ground at startling speed.

Immediately, Gin raised a reiatsu-infused fist to his neck and cauterized the injury, wincing at the sudden and immense pain.

Ichigo, however, stood nonplussed a ever, despite the coursing agony of Shinso's poison. He contemplated the badge in his hand, and quickly shot his Hollow a question.

_"Zangetsu, what's the point of this. We're in the spirit world, how would I use this?"_

_"You're an idiot, King. You used the reishi-converter-thing just like the rest of us, so your soul is still in that meat-sack you call a body."_

Without another wasted moment, Ichigo slammed the badge against his chest, shot out of his body and grabbed the black daito. He relished it's comforting weight. He rushed ahead, enhancing his speed with a burst of _hirenkyaku_, and honed in on the still-downed Gin.

Just when it seemed he would finish the man, however, a new contender entered the fray.

_"Growl, Haineko!"_

Within an instant, a gray smoke-like substance enshrouded Ichigo swallowing him whole. He was surrounded for all of a moment before the smoke-like cloud began to move, swirling around him in an angry storm.

And damn, did it _hurt._

Blood erupted from dozens of newly opened injuries, dropping the Quincy to the ground and leaving him shuddering in agony. This new pain was nothing compared to that caused by the poison-tipped blade that was Shinso, but with every passing moments, tiny blades ripped him apart and aggravated his already-substantial injuries.

Ichigo grunted and bit down on the pain, forcing himself to stand. He had been hurt before and he'd be hurt again, this was no different. For now, he had to roll with the punches and keep on standing. Resolve was reflected in his eyes as he forced himself to get up and _move_, pushing through the endless gray smoke. Within a few moments, he felt something give way in his right leg, severing tendons and ligaments and dropping him to the ground in a horrific mass of bloody, torn flesh.

If Ichigo had still been in his body, he might have died.

Instead, he focused every last iota of energy left into that leg, regenerating it in an instant, and forced himself forward. He dashed ahead, and braced down on his black daito, prepared to escape this torture. He slammed the tip of the black blade into the ground, and vaulted over and up, just as a gymnast at the Olympics would.

He cleared the black smoke-like cloud and appeared in front of his attacker, a surprisingly and scandalously under-dressed female. Well, not under-dressed per se, but extremely _loosely_ dressed.

That being the first thought that crossed his mind, Ichigo nearly erupted into a bout of hysterical laughter.

His opponent, however, was not quite as amused. She held her zanpakuto- just a decorative hilt at this point, and pointed it at Ichigo's chest.

"So then, Quincy, are you ready to die?" Her voice, though clearly feminine and rather high-pitched, was actually very intimidating.

Ichigo, with sarcasm dripping off his voice, replied. "Eh, I don't care. I'm already kinda dead as it is." The Quincy pointed to the chain hanging off his chest, severed and rusted.

"I see." Was her only response as she tightened her hold on the hilt of her zanpakuto.

"Is he your friend?" Ichigo pointed to Gin, who was on his knees and panting, but looking extremely far from dead.

Matsumoto didn't respond, and instead rushed ahead with raw killing intent, something Ichigo recognized with ease. She flicked her zanpakuto to the right, and instantly, the gray cloud of ash moved with it, instantly enveloping Ichigo in thousands of tiny, particulate blades. Ichigo jumped upward, propelling himself with reishi, and into the air.

From that vantage point, he noticed Bambietta and Giselle, unconscious and bleeding half to death.

_Huh, I guess the fighting's gonna have to be put on hold, huh? _Ichigo thought to himself, unknowingly projecting his thoughts to his Hollow.

As was usual with Zangetsu's conversation, a slick wave of pain erupted in Ichigo's forehead.

_"Aw, but I really like that blond chick! I wanna see what she looks like covered in blood, Quincy 1 and Quincy 2 can wait, King!"_

"Shut up, stupid Hollow."

_"My name is Zangetsu. Zan-Get-Su. Get it right."_

"I said shut up!"

Rangiku noticed the exchange and paused long enough to feel confused. "What the hell?"

Gin, who had just recovered from that endless barrage of attacks that Ichigo had laid on, took a closer look at Rangiku and smiled. "That Kurosaki's a weird one. I think he's got a split personality or somethin'."

A moment after, Ichigo turned to face the two Shinigami, a sheepish grin on his face.

"Sorry, but I gotta go. My friends are kinda... Dying. I better get moving!" Without so much as a proper goodbye, Ichigo vanished and reappeared in front of Giselle and Bambietta, black daito dematerialized and hands free.  
>He slung both of the girls over his shoulders and vanished again, leaving behind one very amused Shinigami, and one very confused Shinigami.<p>

"...Isn't he supposed to be the bad guy? I thought the villains were supposed to be evil..."

"Eh, Ichigo-san isn't even close to being the head villain in this story." Gin replied with little to no articulation.

"Then who is?"

Gin remained silent. He knew the answer, of course, but Rangiku wasn't quite ready for it. Yet.

* * *

><p>Kisuke, meanwhile, watched all that transpired within the safety of the Sternritter HQ. Thanks to tiny cameras he had planted on the outfits of each operative, he saw all that happened.<p>

And he was by no means pleased.

When they had departed, he intended it to be a stealthy, get-there-get-back kind of mission, not a terrorist strike. As it stood, the Soul Society was their main enemy, but destroying them in their entirety would only be a bad thing in the long run; the Shinigami balanced this world, and destroying the Seireitei would cause the Human Realm to fall into disarray within a few moments.

And right now, that was exactly what was happening. The Sixth division was in danger of being destroyed entirely, with the loss of both it's Captain and it's Third seat, and the possible defection of the Lieutenant. The Eleventh was also about to suffer a similar fate. It was bad enough that they were stealing both the Captain and Lieutenant, but from what it seemed, the Third and Fifth seat were likely to express an interest in joining their cause as well.

And if that wasn't enough, they already engaged in open combat with _Aizen_ of all people. It was fortunate that the man was holding back considerably, and although the reason for that was largely unknown, it was still quite risky. Ichigo had already cut down Captain Ichimaru and had only spared his life by a narrow second, and only in thanks to the intervention of a Lieutenant.

If things kept up like this, then the Seireitei would burn, and all three realms would fall because of it.

Not good.

So far, the Vizards had avoided contact. Which was, in all honesty, the best and possibly only good part of things so far. They had almost reached their target, however, so the chances of a non-violent encounter were extremely low.

Kisuke really should have limited this group to only two people. The mission would have been quick and silent, they'd get Yachiru and get out, and then things would be fine and dandy. Except the Seireitei was a dangerous and well-sealed place; it was filled with Shinigami that could easily eviscerate any fewer than a full team with ease. And no matter what, it would have taken an entire company to blast through _any_ of the four gates.

Damn Seki-Seki, making things so freaking difficult. If the gates had been made of anything less sturdy, just the presence of two Vizards would have been enough to break through the gates, and Shinji and Rose would have been quiet about it too. As it stood, it was a miracle they broke through in the first place.

Although Seki-Seki was extremely resistant to damage of any kind, Kukaku Shiba had proven that it wasn't impenetrable. It had taken the combined force of four Sternritters, two Quincies, a Shinigami, and five Vizards to break through that gate. To combine that monstrous force, they had made use of Kukaku's cannon-ball thingy and literally launched it into the gate repeatedly.

Getting twelve pairs of hands on a tiny sphere hadn't been easy either.

So, with that in mind, they had breached the Seireitei and _went on a fucking rampage._

Things weren't looking up, but Kisuke had thought that several times already. No use diluting that sentiment, after all, in a world like this, it was bound to be repeated. The former Shinigami darted his eyes to another monitor, this time examining Rukia's progress.

It seemed that she was engaged in combat with the Sixth Division's Lieutenant, a good thing too, because while her life was in danger, the Sixth was unlikely to lose their remaining leadership. The less chaos that got spread around, the better.

Ichigo had abandoned his fight and had begun to evacuate the critically-wounded Sternritters. Thankfully, his opponents didn't seem to have much of an interest in fighting. Uryu and the two with him were also pulling back, although for a different reason entirely; it seemed as if they had wholesale slaughtered dozens (hundreds?) of people, and were only now starting to get tired. The sea of corpses stood testament to that much.

As if to aggravate the already substantial injury caused by that massacre, one of those three was in bad mental shape: Uryu looked worse for wear.

Much worse.

While the boy certainly held an admirable degree of hatred for Shinigami, he was by no means a murderer. To end so many lives so soon, well, Kisuke wouldn't be surprised if he had PTSD by the end of this day. The bucket-hat-man sighed and rubbed his forehead in disappointment. This mission was very rapidly becoming not-worth-it.

Bazz-B and Meninas, however, were completely nonplussed. It made sense for them to simply not care. Haschwalt said that the reason why they were so few in number was because the Shinigami had slaughtered most of their members, even after the first wave of genocide. The remaining six likely harbored a grudge for that much. They would have killed without hesitation.

Come to think of it, a lot of people held a grudge against the Shinigami.

Hell, even the Vizards had a grudge. Shinji, while usually not a blood-thirsty man, had already gone _out of his way_ to cut down two Shinigami. He let them live but... It still wasn't a pretty sight, not by a long shot. Kisuke rolled away from the monitors on a desk chair and called out to Tessai.

"Tessai-san, open a senkaimon for our friends! We'll be evacuating them soon!"

"On it, Boss!" The man called back.

They wouldn't be able to guard that portal for very long, so Kisuke just hoped that those guys would hurry it up. Royd Loyd and Haschwalt had stayed behind for this very purpose. The two Sternritters followed after Tessai, Royd with a lightly glowing rifle in his fists, and Haschwalt with an ornate saber in his left hand.

Show time.

* * *

><p>Shinji held a black piece of 'cloth' in his hands, waving it about in the face of a little girl. This cloth, while seemingly mundane on the outside, was adequate nightmare fuel on the inside. Did Zaraki really put this over his eye? I mean, hungry, ravenous mouths probably weren't flattering to look at all day. That guy was just crazy on so many levels. And what the hell was up with the Lieutenant, too?<p>

She was a child, and while Shinji expected as much, this was too much. A bag of candy in her hands, bright pink hair and a distant stare that screamed 'absent-minded'. Was this really the all-powerful Lieutenant capable of reducing a man to a blubbering, screaming mess?

"So this is Ken-Chan's eyepatch?" She said after a few minutes of deliberation.

"Yeah, this is Zaraki-Taichou's. Interested in comin' with us, girly?"

Yachiru looked momentarily _furious_ at the nickname, but cooled down quickly afterward. She looked Shinji in the eye with a calculating stare, as if to probe his very soul for information.

"Hmm... I dunno... Do you have any candy?"

Shinji's frown deepened, and his exasperation doubled. "Isn't Zaraki supposed to be like, your dad or something? Why are you asking for candy?"

With a giggle, Yachiru sent her reply. "I like Ken-Chan, and I know you aren't lying, but it would be really stupid if I didn't get something out of this!"

"You're kiddin' me. You get to reunite with your dad, and all ya can think about is bribing me for candy?"

"It's really important!"

Shinji sighed and jammed his hand into his pocket. He pulled out a cloth bag, tied off with a red string. "I hear ya really like this rock-candy stuff. If ya come with us, you can have all the candy you could _ever_ want." To the others, that sounded a lot like something a pedophile would say.

Yachiru, however, was beyond caring. "Ooh, I love this brand! And you say I can have _all_ I want if I go with you!?" Her voice was filled with hopeful enthusiasm.

"All of it. I promise." Shinji replied, a large, decidedly creepy grin crossing his face.

Love looked around, hand on his zanpakuto. Right now, they stood in the empty courtyard of the Eleventh Division barracks, not a soul in sight; Almost all the Shinigami had left because of the alarm that got raised. Right now, that 'almost' was really scaring him. Love, gaze darting across the place, could swear he heard footsteps in the distance.

As if to prove that sentiment true, an aggressive-sounding voice began to take hold over the silence.

"I tell ya, we shoulda killed those Quincy bastards long before now. Y'know, I actually fought Ichigo before, and he wasn't nearly this strong then. Now he's taken down Ichimaru-Taichou, and who knows how much damage those other guys have caused."

Yachiru's ears perked up when the noise hit her ears.

"Baldy!" She cried out joyously. "Baldy, is Peacock with you?!"

_"I resent that!" _Yumichika's angry call resonated throughout the closed walls of the courtyard.

The Vizards stiffened. Newcomers were never a good thing. Shinji clapped a hand over Yachiru's mouth and signaled the others to get moving. Rose vanished with a flicker and appeared behind Yumichika, blade pressed against the Shinigami's throat. Love knocked Ikkaku to the ground and pressed his zanpakuto into his back, eyes obscured behind those shades of his.

The others pinned the two down, while Shinji called out to them.

"Who are ya?!"

"Aw damn, this is real annoying, y'know! And why do you have Yachiru?" Ikkaku, face pressed against the dirt, struggled to break free even as he spoke.

Shinji glowered at Ikkaku. "I don't have to answer that, ya know."

Yachiru broke free from Shinji's grasp after a desperate amount of squirming. With the brightest smile anyone had ever seen, she ran up to Ikkaku and looked down at him.

"They're gonna take me to see Ken-Chan!"

Lisa, being the closest to her, sighed in defeat.

"You weren't supposed to reveal the plan, Yachiru."

She frowned slightly, finger pressed against her lip. "Aw, but I wanted to make Baldy jealous."

Ikkaku stopped struggling, instead focusing his efforts on looking up at Shinji.

"You have Zaraki-Taichou?"

Shinji hummed in agreement. "Yeah, what about him?"

Ikkaku had absolutely no hesitation.

"Take me with you."

* * *

><p><strong>I know some stuff has happened, and not all of it will be well-recieved, I'm sure. Aizen's underpowered-ness will be explained, and there's about one more chapter left in this invasion mini-arc.<strong>

** Oh, and another thing too, how would you guys feel about a breather chapter? I love my fight scenes, but I know that avoiding fluff and such will only make my skills languish, so I need practice. Thing is, making filler chapters is almost impossible for me; I need to advance the plot in some way, or a Chapter just isn't worth the time.**

**Some help in that regard would be much appreciated.**

**Don't forget about the Christmas Poll, I'm serious. Only one vote thus far... And don't forget: Every time you _don't_ vote, a puppy dies. Do you really want to kill a puppy? Do you?**


	14. A Grim Farewell

I... I'm sorry.

So sorry.

I can't finish this story, I've come to be disappointed in this work, and the lack in quality of the last couple chapters is indicative in this. I'd like to say I'd fulfill the promises I made, but I can't. I just can't. There may be a time in the future when I pick this back up, but as of now, I just _can't_ finish this.

I have an ending in my head, I have a rough idea of how things will play out, but honestly, every time I try to get it onto the document, it goes blank. This has happened to me before on another story I wrote, roughly half the length of this. I lose inspiration, I try to end the story as soon as possible, and then I stop writing entirely. This, and school, in which I've been bombarded with tests and major products, make it all very... Hard to balance. The loss of the stub-of-a-chapter I got when my hard-drive got wiped was only rubbing salt on a wound.

I'm sorry, I won't be able to finish this story, no matter how much I try not to. Polls will be taken down, and any flames and hatred I get will be my burden to bear. Please, fire every single flame you have, I'm deserving of it.

In hindsight, it would have been wise to plan this work out, get a sketch going before I tried. There were many times when I wanted to turn back and change a critical plot point, but I couldn't because of the incremental chapter-upload. I always hate planning things, but there are benefits to it.

I might start work on another fic in place of this; I already have a prologue for a Shingeki No Kyojin/Bleach crossover- Wait, that got deleted too.

Damn.

So in conclusion, this will not be finished. The work has gotten rushed and low-quality, and I have massive writer's block. It's been a hectic two months, but it's over. I don't want to put any false hope in; this story will likely be as dead as it gets, with no hope of continuation. That said, there's a tiny chance I'll put a new effort in, but like I said, beware of false hope.

I sincerely apologize. Goodbye.

Signing off,

Somebody Else Took My Name


End file.
